Afternoon Tea
by Soundwave3591
Summary: Post-V3 AU fluff. Pyrrha Nikos reflects on her future in the wake of her narrow survival, as she tries to adjust to the new surroundings of Haven Academy, her relationship with Jaune, her growing connection to Ruby, her tarnished reputation…and the nightmares that continue to plague her.
1. Chapter 1

"(Sigh) I told him 3 o'clock."

The redheaded girl in the bronze armor idly tapped her booted foot on the round base of the table, as she ran a gloved finger across her scroll, casting a quick glance down at the time: 3:23.  
A mild annoyance mixed with a mild worry in her jade eyes: Jaune wasn't the most punctual person on good days, but he'd never been this late.  
Pyrrha Nikos sipped at the teacup in her hand as she sat in the café in Mistral, basking in the afternoon sun and letting the crowds pass her by. A recent haircut had ensured she wouldn't be bothered by fans anytime soon. She mildly passed a hand through her shortened locks: she'd adopted a style not unlike Ruby's, though still long enough to merit her characteristic headband.  
as she looked out across the crowd in the marketplace, people going about their everyday lives like nothing in the world had changed, she was struck by how…oddly calm, everything was.  
If only these people knew how close they'd come to losing everything…

A year had passed since the fall of Beacon…while the school was still being rebuilt after the Grimm had been cleared out, the news that it was finally free of its monster infestation had brightened the spirits of many. On top of that, the latest word was that Professor Ozpin would make a full recovery…it had been a near thing, after pulling his battered and broken body out of the rubble of the underground vault while Huntsmen and Atlas troopers had held off the Grimm swarms. Safely sequestered in Vale, he was awake and alert, to the relief of all his students. The recovery of the tower also meant the CCT, offline since the fall, would soon be restored.

Pyrrha herself had had a very near thing as well…..

Idly, Pyrrha fingered the front of her shirt, gracing over the scar that sat just above her breasts... she now wore a sleeveless turtleneck the same color as her sash under her corset…it helped keep people from asking about…that night…  
had Ruby been five seconds slower... had her Uncle Qrow not found them at the top of the tower in time…

That strange, silver light that had enveloped them both….she could still remember the energy coursing over her. And the aftermath...

[=]  
 _  
_ _"Ruby….Ruby…!"  
_  
 _The armored athlete, her arrow-impaled foot useless, her aura and strength gone, her body covered in cuts and scratches, pulled herself feebly towards the crumpled form of the young girl that lay nearby. Every movement was like someone was poking a white-hot prod into her chest…Cinder's arrow had disintegrated when Ruby had done…whatever she did, but the hole still wept blood and her body was still wracked with agony. Her hair was loose and scattered about her, her headband having vanished when she was thrown aside by the blast._ _  
_ _Milo's remains were embedded in the various pieces of rock around her, and Akouo had flown off into the night after her desperate last-ditch attempt at an attack before Cinder had used the Maidens powers she stole to reform her arrow around the flying disc of the shield._

 _Dragging herself up to Ruby's fallen form, the girl looking like a discarded rag doll in the remains of her frilly dress, the exposed skin scratched and bleeding, Pyrrha gently took her into her arms. Crescent Rose lay nearby, melted and mangled beyond recognition as its last few rounds cooked off. That was going to hurt Ruby more than the physical wounds, Pyrrha thought as she gazed down at the youth. She cherished the weapon so…_

 _Strangely, despite the pain she must be in and… whatever she had done, Ruby looked…peaceful, almost like she was merely in a deep sleep. To Pyrrha's relief, she could feel Ruby's breath on her skin as she held her close. She was alive, thank goodness._

 _And above them…  
_  
 _Pyrrha looked up, glaring in undisguised hatred at the frozen figure that stood over the pair, sword raised to deliver a final blow, her face set in a mix of surprise and rage._  
 _Cinder stood, frozen in time, the mass of the dragon behind her, equally petrified. Both looked like they had been formed from ice, their bodies perfectly mimicked down to the last detail. Pyrrha still remembered Cinder's taunting words as she'd formed a bow and arrow from the ashes…even in the face of death, she'd remained defiant…only a single regret holding her back from true peace…_

 _As her mind finally began to give way, her exhaustion overtaking her, Pyrrha idly wondered what they were going to do with them…how the Guardians were going to extract the Fall Maiden's power from the Witch who had nearly doomed them all._

 _Blackness filling her failing vision, Pyrrha managed to squeeze Ruby tighter against her, pillowing the girls head on her bosom, as she laid them both down on the shattered floor of Ozpin's office._  
 _Nothing to do now…except let the memory of a familiar face fill her mind, as she weakly spat in the frozen Cinder's direction._

 _"Jaune…"_

[=]

She shivered at the memory...Cinder's flaming eyes...the redhead still had nightmares that woke her in a cold sweat on many nights, collapsing in uncharacteristic trembling into Jaune's arms.  
Thankfully, Qrow Branwen had managed to make his way to the top of the tower with a Bullhead to recover the pair of them. She had vague memories of being lifted onto a stretcher, carried away from Cinder's frozen gaze…

She'd woken up in a cozy bedroom in what she discovered was Ruby's home. Nora and Ren had been there to greet her, the former's excited babbling expected, and the latter's tears…not so much.  
Nora had made her promise on the spot to NEVER keep the two of them in the dark about serious stuff like this ever again, to which Pyrrha was more than happy to agree to.  
She'd then noticed Jaune wasn't present, and a brief moment of fear had filled her…what if she'd dropped him into a swarm of Grimm, or-?  
But no, thankfully, Jaune hadn't been trapped in the locker to be swallowed by a Nevermore. But as to what HAD become of him…  
Nora and Ren had looked at each other hesitantly before telling her he was…quite upset with her.

Her recovery had been long and more painful than she'd expected. It was months before her bad leg was fully up to spec: no one noticed the slight limp she had before rainfall these days. Aura was a truly wonderful thing.

But the emotional wounds…those…mmm…  
[=]

Jaune, upon being informed she was awake, had, according to Qrow, said "good" then promptly announced he was going into Vale to help clear out the last of the Grimm. Pyrrha had immediately tried to stand up and follow him, only to collapse to the floor.  
Told under no uncertain terms by the Huntsman that she was to stay in bed and rest, she'd caught a glimpse of her team leader stalking away in the autumnal evening, and had been…surprised, by the tears that came to her eyes.

The next few days had passed like a dream for her. Ruby had awakened, which lifted her spirits somewhat, and the two had hugged for what felt like hours. Pyrrha thought it prudent that someone tell her about Crescent Rose…but Qrow had saved the awkwardness from happening, as he and Ruby's father Taiyang produced the weapon in perfect condition, to her surprise. A conspiratorial wink from the alcoholic told her to keep her mouth shut, and she'd smiled happily as Ruby danced around the room, fussing over the crimson weapon like it was a child. Nora and Ren had appeared with a new headband, which they'd had forged by one of the weapon smiths at the Signal School, and made a fuss about helping her put her hair back up. Even Yang, who seemed to be in a deep depression, managed to crawl out of her room to say hello. Despite Ruby's warning, seeing the blonde's truncated arm had caused her to gasp in shock.  
But ask her to recall any specifics of those days, and she'd have to shake her head in regret…all she could remember was an emptiness, a longing….and silent tears in the dead of night. The thought of Jaune being out there, fighting, and here she was, stuck in bed, barely able to lift her arms, gnawed at her like the fangs of a Grimm.  
It had vaguely occurred to her that maybe THAT was what Jaune felt like when he talked about being stuck in a tree while his friends fought for their lives….and her despair had deepened as she realized how terrible it felt…

Almost two weeks after she'd regained consciousness, she'd been awoken to be told by an excited Ruby that the Vale council had announced that the City was free of Grimm. Casualties were high and the inner city was in ruins, but at least the immediate threat was past. Pyrrha's initial excitement that Jaune could return was dulled by the recollection that he was clearly not happy with her, and she'd awaited his return with anticipation mixed with dread.

Her team leader hadn't come back to Ruby's house for another day. She'd sat in bed, forlornly waiting, all throughout the morning as Ren and Nora had uncomfortably fidgeted as they sat with her. It wasn't until the late afternoon when they'd heard footsteps coming up the path to the house.

When Jaune finally came in, looking a bit worse for wear but otherwise unharmed, she'd smiled in relief…which had vanished when she saw his expression.

She'd been most shocked not by his tears, but by his anger...which she supposed she deserved, in hindsight...  
Nora and Ren had all but fled the room as Jaune had sucked in a deep breath…and unlimbered the festering anger he'd been holding onto ever since she'd thrown him into the rocket locker.

[=]

 _"I just...I can't believe you! Why did you do that?! WHY?!"_ _  
_ _Pyrrha stared, wide-eyed, at Jaune, where he stood at the foot of her bed. His shoulders were heaving, tears threatening at the corners of his eyes, but there was no mistaking the fury in his blue gaze._ _  
_ _"Ozpin told you that you didn't have a chance! I told you that you didn't have a chance! And what do you do?! You send me off to hide while all my friends are fighting for their lives! How...HOW COULD YOU?!"_ _  
_ _Pyrrha could feel her lower lip trembling, and the unfamiliar wetness of tears tickled at the corners of her own eyes. She'd been suspecting that Jaune's avoiding her so soon after what happened might have had to do with her sending him away...but nothing like this. He continued his tirade as he stepped closer to the bed._

 _"Listen to me, Pyrrha, and listen good: the fate of the whole world doesn't have to fall on your shoulders alone! To hell with this "destiny" Bullshit, if you believe any of what you said, then your destiny is what YOU make it!"_  
 _her eyes went wider as he clenched his fists, tears billowing from his eyes as he continued, his voice rising as his emotions boiled out of him._  
 _"What is it? Do you believe your own hype? Do you believe those idiots who say you're the "invincible girl?" that lady took down Ozpin, Pyrrha! OZPIN! The HEADMASTER of Beacon! If he couldn't stop her, what chance did YOU have?! Did you honestly believe you were going to "save the world" by getting yourself KILLED?!"_  
 _She felt her hands begin to tremble as his rant continued._  
 _"I still don't know WHAT happened in there, all i know is the woman i loved went off to face down some psycho witch and sent me off to...to...!"_

 _"To hide in a tree..." Pyrrha whispered as he had turned away with a frustrated snarl and banged his head into the wall. She bit her lower lip and looked away from him, shame filling her._

 _He was right to be angry...after everything she'd done to help bolster his self-confidence, in the end, when it really mattered...she'd treated him just like he feared everyone would...the weak link, the liability, the one who needed saving. And she'd gone off to "save the world…"just like everyone expected her to. Maybe she DID take her own reputation too seriously…_

 _Then, just WHAT he had said slammed into her like Cinder's arrow._

 _Her eyes went winder still and she whipped her head back around to stare at the blonde, even as her tears flowed unbidden._

 _"W-wait...what did you just say-?"_

 _He slowly turned back to face her…his anger had dissipated, to be replaced with the most heart-wrenching expression of despair she'd ever had the misfortune of seeing. His eyes...his beautiful blue eyes, wet and helpless, glared at her for what felt like ages._

 _Then, to her shock, Jaune sobbed aloud, collapsing to his knees and burying his face in the blankets at her feet, his shoulders trembling as his hiccupping sobs echoed in her ears._  
 _"I was...dammit Pyrrha!" he cried as he lifted his head to face her, tears falling from his eyes like a waterfall "do you have any idea how scared i was?! I thought I'd lost you! The one person who's ever had faith in me! The first person who actually treated me like i was worth something! And you...you-!"_  
 _His hands gripped at the blankets in desperation as he subsided, letting his head fall back into the sheets._

 _Pyrrha could only stare in amazement at his shuddering form. A few quiet sobs escaped her own throat as she reached out, placing a trembling hand in his hair and gently caressing it. He stiffened under her touch, and raised his sobbing gaze to meet her tear-filled eyes. their memories of growing closer over the past year seemed to comingle as they recalled everything they'd done together…their initiations, her unlocking his aura, their training, their missions…the dance…_  
 _The warmth as he'd placed his hand on hers…her head resting on his shoulder in the evening sun…_

 _And then, in that moment, Pyrrha remembered that Jaune's final memories of her were almost of her throwing him into a wall and kissing him once before sending him off to hide and watch her die._

 _Pain unlike any she'd ever felt before blossomed in her breast…the still-healing wound from Cinder's arrow was but a scratch compared to this…_  
 _Her free hand shot to her mouth as she began to choke on her hiccupping sobs, never taking her eyes off his._  
 _"I'm (hic) I-I'm sorry...oh, Jaune, (sob) I'm so sorry…!"_

 _"Pyrrha-!"_ _  
_ _Jaune flew to his feet, pulling the redhead into his arms, still scorched and smelling of smoke and rubble, as they both broke down, the sound of hopeless sobbing filling the small room. She gripped at his sweater, burying her face in his chest as she wept helplessly, apologizing over and over as she found the breath. Jaune held her close, planting kiss after kiss in her hair and rubbing her back consolingly._ _  
_ _"Pyrrha… I've got you and I'm never letting you go…"_ _  
_ _"Oh... Jaune-!"_ _  
_ _"You hear me? I'm never letting you go! I….I Love you Pyrrha Nikos!"_  
 _"Jaune-!"_  
 _"I won't ever leave you again! I promise you! I'll never leave you again!"_  
 _"I…I love you too, Jaune!"_  
 _"Pyrrha-!"_

 _Neither of them noticed-or cared-that their assembled friends were listening in the corridor, not a dry eye among them as the two finally admitted to themselves what they had all seen for months…_

[=]  
In the months since, Pyrrha recalled with a warm glow, they'd more than made up for their two weeks of separation. With Jaune's help, to say nothing of the morale boost of his affections, she soon recovered from her physical injuries, quickly getting back into the swing of her fighting after weeks in bed. The emotional injuries took a bit more time to heal…besides the nightmares that still plagued her even now (eased only somewhat by the fact that she and Jaune now shared a bed) the lingering guilt of her hand in Penny's death had weighed on her, despite the propping up from the others. Even Ruby's revelation that Penny was a robot hadn't eased her regrets.

It wasn't until, against all hope, the bubbly redhead had come walking up the path to the house with General Ironwood, her new body 'stiff' as she described but no worse for wear, that she'd been able to put the pain to bed at last.  
[=]

 _"P-Penny?" Ruby gasped as the Atlas squad stopped before the house. The redhead waved brightly at Ruby, who had been sparring with Pyrrha in the yard to help the morning pass by._ _  
_ _"Salutations, Ruby Rose!" she said with a bright smile, before opening her arms wide as the 15-year old, with a scream of delight, sprang onto the robot, wrapping her arms and legs around Penny as she'd sobbed dramatically. Pyrrha herself felt her knees go weak as a hand went to her mouth. The Atlesian turned her bright green eyes towards her as she patted Ruby on the back._ _  
_ _"And Salutations to you as well, Pyrrha Nikos! I am glad to see you are recovered from your injuries. Though I regret that we were unable to finish our battle, it was most thrilling!"_ _  
_ _"A-And you as w-well!" Pyrrha stammered as she managed to walk up to the girl, her shock and awe apparent, "B-but how-?!"_ _  
_ _"Well, umm….I am a fast healer!" Penny said with a wide smile, before a hiccup escaped her mouth. General Ironwood sighed._ _  
_ _"I suppose the cats out of the bag, Penny. The whole world saw what happened."_ _  
_ _Turning to regard the three girls, he spoke as Penny released Ruby._ _  
_ _"I have a matter to discuss with Qrow. Have you seen him, Ruby?"_ _  
_ _"uuuh…I think he's over at Signal right now, General." The redhead replied as she scratched her head. Ironwood nodded._ _  
_ _"Thank you. If you don't mind, I'll leave Penny here until I get back. I think you three have some catching up to do."_ _  
_ _His words were met with fierce nodding from Ruby and Penny, and, motioning to the soldiers he'd brought with him, they marched off down the road towards the combat school over the hill. The girls watched him go._ _  
_ _"He…looks a bit worse for wear." Ruby said with a concerned tone. Penny's smile disappeared as she nodded._ _  
_ _"He has been very busy since the attack…between the fallout from the attack itself and those responsible engineering it so Atlas was made the aggressor, he hasn't had much time to sleep."_ _  
_ _"Though" she went on as she turned her full attention back to the two teens "he was most pleased when the body of Cinder Fall was recovered from the top of Beacon tower."_ _  
_ _"So she's locked up? Good." Ruby said, as Pyrrha nodded. However, she didn't take her eyes off of Penny, and Ruby could see her lower lip was trembling slightly._ _  
_ _"Penny, I-" she began to say, before Penny stepped forward and, to her surprise, wrapped her in a deep hug._ _  
_ _"There is no need to apologize, Pyrrha Nikos" she said, "I am clearly no worse for wear-though my new body is a bit stiff in the joints- and it just shows how much I still have to learn!"_ _  
_ _Releasing the tall redhead, Penny met her shocked expression with a large smile._ _  
_ _"You are very powerful indeed, Pyrrha Nikos!"_ _  
_[=]  
To say she'd been ecstatic to learn Penny was not only alive, but did not blame her for her…dismantling, had seemed to snap Pyrrha out of the funk she hadn't realized she was in. the sun had seemed to shine for the first time in weeks, and she'd been able to direct her attention to getting herself back in action…and her relationship with Jaune.

Glancing down at her right wrist, she smiled at the bronze bracelet, inset with a glittering sapphire, that she wore: one of a pair, the other graced with an emerald and wrapped around Jaune's wrist, that they'd had made upon arriving in Mistral: with Beacon unable to host classes, the students had been broken up amongst the other three academies.  
JNPR was lucky…with all four of their team members together, they'd managed to keep their Beacon status as they'd transferred to Haven. RWBY wasn't so lucky: with Yang incapacitated, Blake missing and Weiss in Atlas, Ruby had briefly been attached to her team, a second 'R:' unorthodox, for sure, but in light of what happened…and how many teams had been through far worse, Pyrrha welcomed the presence of their friend.  
The four had quickly incorporated Ruby into their attack structures, and helped her adjust to the new surroundings she found herself in: the technological metropolis of Mistral was a radical departure from the classic architecture and almost fairy-tale forests of Vale, and Ruby had almost collapsed in a panic attack on their first day.  
Pyrrha and the young Vale native had grown closer since, Ruby opening up and becoming more personable to others and Pyrrha revealing some of her heart-felt secrets to her. She looked on Ruby almost as a little sister, while Ruby looked to her as a surrogate Yang, a source of comfort in this wider world.

To say nothing of what they were able to do when their auras were at max power…that silver energy of Ruby's had bound them in more ways than they realized, and when they were at a fever pitch in Combat the pair were a force to be reckoned with. Together, they'd proven unstoppable in the dueling rings of the school, sending Sun's team, amongst others, home with their tails between their legs time and again. Pyrrha's semblance had become focused and direct enough that she was able to spring out of bed and summon her armor to her body without hesitations, a trick she'd been trying to master for years, never mind what she was capable of doing in battle: where she's struggled to move large objects before, she could now virtually fly riding her re-forged shield like a magnetized kite, and few could say they'd seen an 18-wheeler dropped on an Ursa before. Ruby, meanwhile, had not only managed to finally use her semblance with a passenger in her arms, but had picked up greatly on hand-to-hand combat skills, thanks in no small part to Pyrrha's training. She'd vowed to never be caught helpless without her weapon against an opponent like Mercury or Torchwick again.

This was not to say Pyrrha had neglected her other teammates: she and Jaune had continued their own training, and he was becoming quite the proficient swordsman, even if his semblance continued to be sporadic and flickering. Nora and Ren had likewise expanded their repertoire of abilities, and working in conjunction with Ruby had helped them grow closer to the younger girl as well.

But her time spent with Jaune was always her most valued, and that was what was supposed to be happening today. Ruby, Ren and Nora were off visiting a weapons exhibit at a nearby museum (and stopping for Pancakes afterward) leaving Jaune and Pyrrha with a rare afternoon to themselves.

Or, in the case of the immediate moment, an afternoon to HERself.

Peering into her teacup, Pyrrha sighed again as she saw the dregs of the amber liquid sloshing about the bottom. She tossed the temptation of ordering another cup around in her mind: on the one hand, she was still thirsty, but on the other, did she want a fresh, hot cup if Jaune was about to come running around the corner, apologizing profusely in his usual dorky manner, likely as he tripped over something?

As if on cue, the sound of someone breathing heavily and feet slamming against the concrete behind her was punctuated with an awkward squawk of alarm, compounded by the sound of two bodies impacting one another and a cacophony of shattering china.

Turning, Pyrrha cocked an eyebrow as Jaune peered up at her with a helpless expression from where he was tangled with a waitress on the ground. Shattered teacups surrounded them.  
"(ouch) uuuh...hey, Pyrrha..." he said sheepishly as he extracted himself from the young Faunus he'd run into in his haste. Pyrrha hid a smile as the girl shot Jaune a look that could melt steel as he tried to help her gather the shattered cups.

With an internal sigh, Pyrrha rose from her seat, fingering her purse...wondering how much lien it was going to cost for the broken porcelain.

Not that she wouldn't pay...

"Uuuh...sorry." he said as, with a final glare from the waitress, she stormed away with the tray of pieces while he came up to his date "I ran into some trouble with my shield."  
Pyrrha smiled a casual smile at him.  
"Just consider yourself lucky we didn't buy the movie tickets online." she replied as she turned to walk over to the cashier "or I'd make YOU pay for those cups."  
with a sheepish grin, one that she couldn't help but love, he shoved his hands into her pocket as, after Pyrrha took care of compensating the cafe for their lost cups, he followed her outside into the afternoon sun, the incident left behind them as they reveled in each other's company  
"I love you" Jaune said as he took her hand in his. Squeezing it tightly, she looked up into his blue eyes as their bracelets glinted in the sun.  
"I know."


	2. Chapter 2: Strawberry Fields Forever

" _it is unfortunate you were promised a power that was never yours to begin with."  
Pyrrha gasped in agony as she tried to put pressure on her leg, but to no avail: the arrow had sliced clean through her ankle, the appendage was useless. She felt every scratch, every bruise, every cracked rib and torn ligament in her body screaming at her: her Aura was drained completely.  
Her weapons were gone: Milo lay in pieces a few feet away, the metal still red-hot and smoking, and Akouo had vanished, spinning off into the darkness before she could call it back._

 _the smug, satisfied voice of her assailant came to her ears as, on clinking glass high heels, Cinder strutted around before the fallen Huntress and knelt, using one of her fingers-no one like this witch had any right having skin so soft-to push Pyrrha's head up to look into her eyes._  
 _"know that I will use it in ways you could never imagine."_  
 _those eyes…those cruel, smug, hate-filled eyes…._

 _the Grimm Dragon's roaring could still be heard, and every now and then the leathery flap of ancient wings echoed in her ears. Pyrrha met the woman's gaze, her defiance managing to hide the pure animal fear that screamed one sentence to her over and over again…_

I'm going to die…

 _"do you believe in Destiny?"_

I'm going to die…

 _the woman's face shifted slightly, her smile vanishing as she stood and took a step back. With a wave of her hand, her sword-bow and an arrow materialized out of pure energy._

I'm going to die…

 _drawing the bowstring back, the razor-sharp tip of her arrow aimed directly at the center of Pyrrha's chest, Pyrrha couldn't help but let regrets pile into her mind…_

Ruby…Ren, Nora…Jaune….I'm so sorry…..

 _Her thoughts were disrupted, however, by the sound of…footsteps charging up the side of the building._

 _but that was impossible…_

 _"PYRRHA!"_

 _"WHAT?!" Cinder screamed as her face, twisting in rage, turned to the source of the sound. Pyrrha likewise whipped her head around, her own jade eyes widening as a familiar figure sprang impossibly over the edge of the ruined tower, a familiar crimson weapon roaring in defiance of the hopelessness of the scene._  
 _"GET AWAY FROM HER!" a familiar voice screamed, the sound filling Pyrrha's ears._  
 _the tiny figure of the girl, in her frilly black dress and red cape that only served to make her look younger still, her almost laughably oversized weapon roaring like a noble beast in her hands, filled Pyrrha's eyes…a face of pure determination, of resolute strength…_

 _"Ruby…"_

 _then everything vanished, in a wave of fresh agony, as something razor sharp tore into her chest, breaking skin and piercing bone. She suddenly choked as the something, burning hot, slid deep inside her bosom, slicing tender flesh and sending screaming pain up her nerves. Her heart stopped. Her lungs froze. Her throat filled with blood. Her eyes swam as her vision turned red. Her brain felt like it was going to burst out of her skull. She couldn't scream, couldn't make a sound._

 _Her senses seemed to fail her. She barely registered the impact throwing her backwards, the feeling of hitting the ground a dull *thud* in her mind. She only vaguely felt her hair steaming down over her face as her headband skittered off into the night._  
 _fear unlike any she'd ever felt before filled her mind as her body failed to respond to her screaming command to GET UP, to MOVE, to DO SOMETHING. Her eyes, seeming to be the only thing that still worked, fell on the small figure of her friend, Crescent Rose thundering away at the woman who had shot her even as Ruby's beautiful silver eyes turned in horror to meet Pyrrha's gaze._

 _Those eyes…those comforting, silver eyes, once so full of sweet innocence._  
 _They seemed to glow in Pyrrha's vision as everything began to blur…her body was screaming in pain…fire and flames seemed to be coursing up and down her nerves…her blood boiling…her skin melting…._  
 _in that final moment before the cold hand of death closed around her heart, and a single tear managed to work its way from her eye, the only comfort she could call on were the brief memories of a warm, fulfilling kiss….and those glowing silver eyes..._

 _"PYRRHAAAA!"_

[=]

"Pyrrha! Pyrrha, wake up!"  
the redheaded teen's eyes shot open as screaming registered in her ears. Her wide eyes, full of tears and looking around wildly, fell on a pair of familiar blue eyes, eyes full of worry as a pair of hands grasped her head, forcing her to look at them. The screaming subsided into gasps and cries and whimpers as the lingering memories of the burning pain clung to her sweat-soaked skin. Her chest heaved as she hyperventilated, the aftereffect of the arrow still filling her lungs with blood…  
"Pyrrha, It's me! It's Jaune, calm down!"  
then, suddenly, familiar warmth pressed itself to her lips…warmth that seemed to banish the lingering memories from Pyrrha's mind, to ease the pain better than any salve. A new scent filled her nose and fought its way into her perceptions: a familiar scent of armor and sweat and something masculine that only she knew the secrets of from nights much, much happier than this.  
the eyes, the warmth and the scent managed to finally ease her racing heart and scrambled nerves, and, her hands still trembling with adrenaline, she reached up to mesh her fingers into the familiar blonde hair as the kiss, to her sorrow, broke to allow her to breathe.  
"J-Jaune!" the redhead hiccupped as he gazed into her bloodshot eyes, concern and exhaustion on his face, his mouth open slightly as he breathed in relief.  
The darkness around her told her it was still night, as her mind began to calm enough for her to register her situation: She wasn't in the ruins of Ozpin's office, facing down Cinder, the psycho witch who had stolen the Maiden's powers: she was in team JNPRR's new dorm room at Haven Academy: with her and Jaune sharing a bed, there was no issue with finding a place for Ruby…who occasionally joined the two on nights when Pyrrha was really bad…

Pyrrha didn't fight back as, releasing her head, Jaune pulled her into his arms, letting her bury her face in his chest, the comforting smell of his T-shirt-the bunny pajamas were long gone, lost with Beacon-and the feeling of his growing muscles beneath it like a security blanket to her rattled nerves.  
"Jaune-!" she gasped as she reflexively nuzzled deep into his arms. He squeezed her tightly as her trembling finally began to subside.  
"the nightmare." Jaune said. It wasn't a question.  
Pyrrha nodded against his chest, letting her hands slide into the embrace, gripping his shirt where they were pinned against his chest. She blushed slightly as her hands traveled over developing muscles: Jaune had been pushing himself hard to get in something resembling "fit" shape ever since Beacon fell.  
"third time this week…" she muttered, as Jaune placed a few gentle kisses in her hair, rubbing her back consolingly. Pyrrha sighed.  
"it's always the same….I'm staring…Her, down…my ankle is screaming, Ruby springs out of nowhere guns blazing, and then…"  
she fought back-and lost-against a hiccupping sob.  
"the arrow…"

the third time this week she'd woken up screaming in the wee hours of the morning, her body thrashing around as memories of the screaming pain that she'd been subjected to filled her body. Third time this week he'd only managed to calm her with a sudden kiss: figuring out the effectiveness of that gesture had come only after early attempts to restrain her had resulted in bloody noses and sprained wrists.

Jaune said nothing as he continued his gentle consoling gestures, feeling her body briefly tremble with silent tears. How could he say anything? How could any of them say anything?  
None of them had come within a hair's breadth of death before. When he'd arrived back at Ruby's home and seen Pyrrha lying there in the bed, her bandaged body limp, almost lifeless, like a discarded doll…it had-almost-driven his anger at her from his mind.  
almost.

Pyrrha felt the material of her own sleep shirt pull across her scar…her scar that Jaune's fingers had grazed over countless times as they'd explored each other's bodies in silent nights, a single imperfection on her otherwise flawless body.  
Ruby had touched it too, on those nights when she and Pyrrha had simply held each other close…those nights Jaune could not be with them for one reason or another, where Ruby happily took his place as Pyrrha's source of support. Even after a year no one dared even propose Pyrrha try sleeping alone…not yet.  
not since the Nightmares began shortly after Jaune had returned to her side.  
Strangely, while she preferred Jaune to avoid the rough patch of skin if at all possible (no easy feat, considering how WELL he was able to tend to her…needs…) she drew…comfort, when Ruby's small fingers gently caressed the spot: regardless of her mood, it brought warmth to her cheeks and, oddly, made her sleepy. Simply allowing Ruby to press her hand to the spot often served as effective a knock-out drug as Jaune's embrace. She wasn't sure if that was because it applied pressure to the blood vessels and air passages that the arrow had sliced through or simply because Ruby's touch was… soothing.  
soothing on the nights as they'd explored…one another…though Ruby's first attempt at "kissing" her calm after a nightmare had been more farcical than soothing…Pyrrha still wasn't sure if it was the kiss itself or amusement at Ruby's face going as red as her cape that had calmed her down.  
Though the younger girl had gotten better at it since…

She sighed as she snuggled deeper into Jaune's arms. She knew he didn't mind Ruby's affections towards herself: indeed, he seemed to welcome the inclusion of the girl into their circle, her having been one of the first people he had met upon arriving at Beacon. He trusted her implicitly.  
"what time is it?" the redhead asked drowsily: her adrenaline rush was wearing off, and she could feel the need to sleep tugging at her again.  
She felt Jaune's head turn to the clock on their shared bedside table, and he gave a quiet grunt.  
"ten minutes of five." He said as he turned and gently kissed her again " Congrats, P. You almost made it through the night this time."  
"Five?" she said in surprise. Opening her eyes wider, she could just vaguely detect that the light was…moderately brighter than she usually woke up to. Two or Three in the morning was usually her unwelcome wake-up time.  
Jaune sighed as he stroked her hair: even her now shortened locks were still radiant and beautiful in his eyes. she cooed slightly at his touch…he was ever so good with her "soothe spots."  
"no point trying to go back to sleep." Pyrrha said with a sigh of her own "we've got class in three hours."  
"mmm" he muttered in reply. Pyrrha felt a brief twinge of guilt for Jaune: her screaming nightmares often kept him awake for hours on end trying to comfort her, and she knew it was affecting his daily schedule. He'd fallen asleep in class several times, and even a casual observer-to say nothing of their teachers-could see the bags under his eyes.  
she idly let her eyes drift closed…maybe she could doze a bit for another hour…

[=]

She was jarred awake with a sudden cry as an alarm jangled in her ears. Reflexively, she pushed herself away from Jaune, head whipping around. She heard her partner chuckle at her, and looked down at him with a small smirk as she realized she must have fallen back asleep.  
Around them, their teammates and partners were stirring as well. Ruby stretched and yawned sleepily as she sat up in the bed: her own hair had grown out a few inches longer, now reaching her shoulders, though still keeping the same general cut. According to the younger girl it was similar to her mother's hairstyle. And she'd said nothing more about her mother after that.

ah well. Everyone was entitled to secrets.

Nora and Ren likewise rolled out of their beds, Nora with her seemingly boundless energy immediately leaping into stretching and a few jumping jacks after slapping off the alarm (it was her "job" to do so, as she was guaranteed to always wake up) while Ren, zombie-like, lurched to his feet.  
After idly passed-around "good mornings" and quick showers taken in turns, the five began to don their uniforms. With modesty in mind, both boys turned their backs on the girls to allow them dress: While co-ed dorms were the norm at the Huntsman schools, some decorum still applied.

"we've got battle theory today, right?" Ruby said with a grimace: she had worked long and hard with her team at Beacon, the responsibility of team leader weighing on her. While she was no longer as pressed to perform as she'd been with team RWBY, she still tried to maintain her skill level for the day when-and it was always "when"- she would reunite with her friends.  
Still, even with Pyrrha's help, some things still drove her crazy. Ruby was an expert in the combat ring, but the tactical and analytical side of it was…

"I Know you find it dull." Pyrrha said as she buttoned her blouse "but it's important. There's more to the battlefield than just-"  
"whizzing around slashing things, I know." Ruby said with a frown "it's just…Professor Winchester is…creepy."

There, Pyrrha could not fault her teammate as she herself scowled: Cardin Winchester's uncle, Professor Earl Winchester, seemed to have thrice the smugness and brutal tendencies of his nephew.  
to say nothing of the virulent racism towards Faunus…

Learning how often Pyrrha had trounced Cardin at Beacon had only seemed to engender a particular dislike for herself in the older man, and he tended to foist extra work upon her. The excuse?  
"a world-renowned fighter should have no trouble!" he would say, his smug grin never wavering. His whispered nicknames of "Awful Earl" and "Whip Man Winchester' were well-earned, even if her own conscience refused to allow her to speak ill of people behind their backs.

Pyrrha grimaced as, sitting on her bedside, she slid the black support stockings her doctors said she had to wear for her ankle up her legs: there was no excuse, in her mind, for a professional educator to take a personal vendetta out on his students.  
Cardin himself was still recovering at a central hospital in Mistral, having suffered a severe slash wound from an Ursa in the Vale Clean-Up operations. Jaune had seen the whole thing:

[=]

 _"Cardin's hurt bad."  
Pyrrha looked up from where she was leaning on her partner-and now boyfriend's-shoulder, pondering his words. Professional concern for a schoolmate dictated her next question rather than any real concern for Cardin's well-being.  
"is he alright?"  
Jaune shrugged, the movement smushing his Hoodie into her nose, filling her nostrils with his comforting scent.  
"he didn't do too bad." The blonde continued "killed a couple of Beowolves, a few Ursa's, even helped me take down a Goliath."  
he sighed as he leaned back on the bench the two were sitting on, feeling the early autumn sunset beating down on them as it settled towards the horizon.  
"but…well, you know Cardin: he got cocky, didn't pay attention…never saw that last Ursa coming."  
Pyrrha couldn't help but smirk.  
"he really had to have his head stuffed up his behind if he didn't hear an_ Ursa _sneaking up on him."  
Jaune chuckled lightly: neither of them could really bring themselves to care about their mutual classmate…and for a short time, tormentor. When Jaune had told Pyrrha that Cardin had planned to sic a box of Rapier Wasps on her for showing him up in dueling class, she'd been ready to hunt the teen down and nail him to the wall of the dormitory.  
though that had a lot more to do with what he'd been forcing Jaune to do under threat of blackmail than any concern for her own well-being…_

[=]

Sliding the black material of her tights up her legs, her eyes fell on her right ankle, and thoughts of Cardin were banished from her mind as a recollection of…that night, flashed into the forefront of her perceptions. Even under the black nylon she could still see them in her mind's eye… a constant reminder of that night, the identical scars on each side of her leg a glaring identifier of how close she'd come to-

she shook her head to banish the memories-and the chill they brought with them-from her mind as she stood up, settling the elastic of the black tights about her waist and reaching for her skirt. Now wasn't the time to dwell on such things.  
it never was. She tried to keep it that way as she slid the plaid material up her legs and tucked in her blouse.

Her foot had given her less trouble in the long run than her chest wound. The former had healed well enough for her to walk-albeit with a significant limp-before the winter had set in. Constant therapy, courtesy of Ruby's Father, combined with frequent foot massages from Jaune- another skill learned from his seven sisters-had limbered her out enough that, by the time word came down from the higher-ups that the Beacon Students were going to be sent to the other academies, she was able to not only walk normally but even wear her favored High-heeled boots. The support tights-which she didn't mind, really-were just one of the things she had to do to keep herself going.  
besides…something about the silky material made Jaune's foot massages…more enticing.

Zipping up her skirt, she slid the brown vest portion of the uniform about her torso, slipping it into place beneath her breasts. She adjusted it to give herself a comfortable fit without the garment becoming a push-up bra for her already impressive chest.  
hearing a despairing grunt from behind her, she turned and smiled sympathetically as Ruby fiddled with her own skirt: the zipper had become caught in the tail of her blouse, and she was struggling to free it.  
"here, hold on." the redhead said, as she crouched down, quickly and deftly freeing the white material from the zipper and pulling it down to make sure it was clear.  
She caught a glimpse of Ruby's panties- white, decorated with little strawberries-beneath the girl's own stockings before she zipped the skirt back up neatly and cleanly. Quickly smoothing the younger girl's blouse, she smiled brightly at Ruby as she straightened up, fiddling with the buttons and fluffing out the shoulders in a sisterly manner. Ruby preened under the attention: Pyrrha knew how much the girl missed her older sister (still recovering in Vale) and she did her best to fill in for Yang as best she could.  
"there you go."  
"thanks Pyrrha!" Ruby said with a wide smile as she smoothed her skirt out. It faded to a grimace as she looked down at herself in her uniform.  
"they are really a lot stricter about the uniforms here than at Beacon." She muttered to herself. Pyrrha patted Ruby on the shoulder comfortingly as she turned to continue dressing herself: unlike Beacon, were students could generally ignore the uniforms if they so desired, Haven required proper Uniform codes be met at all times. Combat gear-any element of it-was to be worn only in the training centers or while dueling.

While it wasn't an issue for Pyrrha (her headband was decorative enough to pass the code's restrictions) neither Jaune or Nora were allowed to wear their gloves, and as for Ruby…  
it had taken a signed note from Professor Goodwitch for Ruby to be allowed to wear her omnipresent cape and hood: that had been a long week waiting for that to arrive. And she still had to carry that note-and copies Goodwitch had had the foresight to send-at all times, ready to present to uniform inspectors and oversensitive teachers.

like Professor Winchester…

Her deft fingers tying her tie about her neck, Pyrrha grimaced slightly as Nora simply slid her own loosened tie under her collar, pulling it tight: while yes, it saved time, the outcome always looked…sloppy, to Pyrrha. She'd taught Ruby well about how to tie her own tie, so the younger girl always followed Pyrrha's lead.  
crouching down and reaching for her shoes, she listened with half an ear as Nora spoke up.  
"I hope they have those Waffles in the mess hall today. I don't know what they put in them, but they are GOOD!"  
Jaune's voice came from the opposite side of the room in reply.  
"those your new pancakes or something?" he asked with an amused tone to his voice. Nora's bubbly reply was full of her usual vigor.  
"I mean, I love my pancakes, don't get me wrong, but those Waffles, they're just, MMMMM! The syrup stays ON THE THING in all those little holes! It gets all nice and soaked and juicy and sweet and mmmmMMMMMmmmmmm I'm getting hungry just thinking about them all covered in syrup and-!"

"Nora… I'm surprised Mistral has any syrup LEFT after last time they served them." Ren said in his familiar monotone. His partner huffed, cocking a hip and pouting as her teammates chuckled. Pyrrha smiled at the antics of her friends as she stepped into her shoes: it was as though they hadn't left Beacon and all those happy memories she'd made.  
it still amazed her that these people had accepted her, the world famous "invincible girl" (yeah, right) into their fold so easily.  
she smiled wider as, sliding one sleeve of her uniform jacket on, she peered at Jaune, who was buttoning his pants. She had him to thank for a lot of that.

As she spread her arms to slide her other sleeve on, however, she gasped suddenly, wincing as her arms dropped and a hand flew to her chest. A jolt of pain coursed up and down her body, weakening her knees and driving her strength away.  
"Pyrrha!" Ruby cried as the redhead sat roughly down on her bed, breathing heavily as her smile shifted into a grimace of pain.

"I'm…alright…." She said between breaths, her eyes closed as a few drops of sweat beaded on her forehead. Her free hand was supporting her, keeping her from collapsing completely…which had happened more times than she cared to admit.

Ruby sat beside her friend, placing a hand over that of Pyrrha's that was clutching her chest. The redhead smiled weakly at her younger teammate and looked up to meet the concerned expressions of the others as they gathered around.

"you okay?" Jaune asked, as he placed a supportive hand on Pyrrha's shoulder. She sighed.

"it's just…the spot again….it comes and goes when it wants too…"

"here, take it easy" Jaune continued, his eyes widening in concern as he gently eased her coat off her sleeve. She smiled gratefully at him as she leaned back slightly.  
"you want us to tell your professors-" Ren began to ask, but Pyrrha cut him off with a headshake.  
"I'm not going to give Professor Winchester the satisfaction." She replied with vigor. It faded slightly, however, as she tried to take a deep breath. It ended halfway, and she had to settle for a minor cough that made her chest cramp up once more.

her teammates looked between each other, before they all focused back on Pyrrha.  
"you sure?" Nora asked, her bubbly tone vanished beneath a layer of concern.

"guys, I just need a few minutes, don't fret!" Pyrrha said, forcing a smile onto her face. Like her vigorous tone, however, it faded as she clutched tighter at her chest. She sighed despairingly.

"that said…I think I'll skip breakfast and the free duel observations today…you guys want to go ahead without me?"

"you sure?" Jaune said "we can stay here until you-"  
"no, no, you guys go eat. I'll just take a few minutes to rest up and meet you guys in class."  
the other JNRR members looked between one another: one thing they'd all learned in their time together was what a terrible liar Pyrrha was.

Especially when it came to how far she still had to go before she was fully "recovered."

"guys, come on! This has happened before!" Pyrrha insisted, putting a smile on. Her spirits diminished, however, as she saw their concerned looks.  
the last thing she wanted was for them to start treating her like a glass flower…

"you guys go ahead."  
all four of the old team JNPR's eyes turned to Ruby, who still had a hand pressed to Pyrrha's chest. She looked determined, and had a small smile on her face.  
"I think she just needs some silver shine" the youth went on, as she blinked, her silver eyes flashing in the early morning sun. Pyrrha's own eyebrows shot up at Ruby's statement.  
"I'll juice her up and we'll catch up with you guys."  
Ren and Nora seemed to calm down at that: both knew full well what the "silvershine" was.  
having witnessed it first hand on the battlefield and in recent Grimm Incursions…it was a sight to behold.  
but they knew that, in the circumstance Ruby was referring to now…was a bit more private.

"alrighty!" Nora said, as she turned and strode towards the door of their dormitory, grabbing her books as she hummed a flighty tune. Ren followed her, collecting his own texts.

Jaune Lingered.  
the blonde leader of the team knew full well that this strange…bonding, that Ruby and Pyrrha shared was something benign, even helpful… but having seen it when it got slightly out of control…  
"it'll be fine, Jaune." Pyrrha said as she reached out and took one of his hands in her own "this has always worked, hasn't it? just like how you calm me down after a nightmare."  
His worried gaze remained, even as a smile threatened at the edge of his lips.

Pyrrha perked her eyebrows up a touch higher, a mild "hmm?" coming from her smiling lips as she stared into his deep blue eyes, her long eyelashes flitting open and closed like butterfly wings a few times. While she generally tried to avoid "puppy dog pouting" and such, she wasn't above some bashful eyelash batting: she knew it was one of Jaune's weaknesses.

of course, she herself was helpless before Ruby's huge eyes, so what did that say about her?

"well…alright" Jaune said, leaning down and gently kissing her on the lips. Pyrrha couldn't help but blush at the sensation, even after almost a year of their relationship. She smiled dreamily at the blond as he stood up.  
"we've got our scrolls" he said to the pair as he turned to join Ren and Nora. Popping his sleeve, he flashed the bronze bracelet with its inlaid Emerald. Pyrrha did likewise with her Sapphire bracelet: the jewelry never left their wrists unless absolutely necessary.  
that way, they'd never be separated. Ever.  
the three left the room, Jaune's gaze lingering on the redheads, before the door swung closed behind them, leaving the two alone. 

"here" Ruby said as she gestured for Pyrrha to lie down. Pyrrha smiled, sliding her shoes off and swinging her legs up onto the bed before leaning back, her head on her Pillow. She winced slightly as the movement aggravated her discomfort, and she couldn't help a near-silent grunt of pain. Ruby tutted in concern.

Doffing her own footwear and sliding her coat off, placing it and Pyrrha's on Ruby's own bed next to them, Ruby climbed onto the mattress, lying down herself and cuddling up close to her newfound partner.  
"let me know if it gets to be too much…I don't want to overcharge you like that one time…" Ruby said with an embarrassed lilt in her voice as she unlaced Pyrrha's tie and unbuttoned the top few buttons of her blouse. Sliding the material aside, the rough, dark patch of skin that signified the penetration point of Cinder's arrow was revealed. Pyrrha smiled at her teammate, nodding and settling herself deeper on the bed.  
"make sure you set an alarm" she replied "we don't need to get so deep in we don't come out until the afternoon."  
"that was ONE TIME…" Ruby moaned, though her cheeks reddened as Pyrrha giggled lightly. Ruby huffed at her teammate, before turning and grabbing the team's shared alarm clock and punched in a few numbers.

"I set it for an hour" she said as she tossed the device onto Nora's bed-far enough away that they'd have to get up to shut it off- and turned back to Pyrrha "that should give us enough time to get ourselves unlimbered and dressed for class."  
"sounds good." Pyrrha replied, smiling at her youthful teammate as Ruby flexed her fingers and took a few deep breaths.

They'd done this before, when Pyrrha's injuries had acted up and she'd been hard-pressed to function. The power that had seemingly bound the two redheads to one another in more ways than one, that drove them to incredible feats in battle…had more uses than just increasing combat ability. It seemed to tie their emotional states together… they could, when they were charged and energized, sense the other's sadness, their anger, their joy. On those nights when Ruby felt helplessly homesick for Vale (and for Yang) on those nights when Pyrrha couldn't even sleep for the painful memories, the euphoria of all the experiences they shared…

Pyrrha felt another touch of guilt: while Jaune was able to comfort her on a deep emotional level that went above many of her perceptive sensations…Ruby was able to soothe her on a deep mental level that Jaune, for all his kindness, just couldn't match. She nor Ruby wanted him to feel like a third wheel (her sending him away from Beacon had effectively demolished the self-esteem she'd been helping him build, and it had been a long road to restore it since) and so she hadn't objected when Ruby had insisted that when they did this particular form of their bond, they did it in private.

Pyrrha let herself relax as Ruby pressed into her side, their foreheads almost touching, as Ruby gently slid one of her delicate hands into Pyrrha's shirt. The sensation of those slim digits sliding over her skin brought a blush to Pyrrha's cheeks…but that was nothing compared to what was coming next.

Gently placing her delicate fingers on the roughened skin above Pyrrha's breasts, her fingertips brushing the lacy material of the athlete's bra, Ruby breathed out a surprisingly long, slow breath…

and Pyrrha gasped, her eyes widening as the familiar warmth washed over her, banishing the lingering ache of her scar and the lingering memories of her nightmare. Glancing down her long body where it lay on the bed, she could see a slight silvery tinge emanating from Ruby's hand, flowing into her body like water flowed into a drain. All at once, she felt on top of the world. She felt light and airy and more comfortable than she ever felt before (outside of Jaune's arms) as the almost tickly sensation flowed up and down her trembling body, from the tips of her toes to the ends of her hair. She turned her head to look at Ruby, whose eyes were half-lidded, like she was slipping into a deep sleep...

"see you in an hour…." The redhead whispered as she felt her own eyes drift closed. Ruby "mmph'd" in reply, nuzzling her face deeper into Pyrrha's shoulder as the two ventured off to a place only they were able to go…


	3. Chapter 3:Summer Daze

Atlas Center for Scientific Development (ACSD), Atlas

"bring her in."

General Ironwood watched, silent and stoic, as a large table, guided by two Atlas troopers and flanked by a quartet of Atlesian Knight-220's (no different than the Knight-200's, save for adapted software to prevent hacking like that which had befallen them at Beacon) was slid into the sealed laboratory. Automated sentry turrets and several more of the upgraded knights kept weapons trained on the flat surface, and the sheeted figure that lay upon it.  
The room smelled of steel and plastic and antiseptic and a plethora of other chemicals that had no business being near the human body. A deep chill seemed to permeate everything, and steam rose from those few heat sources, and puffed out in clouds from the assortment of mouths. Ironwood himself exhaled a small fogbank as he kept his gaze firmly locked on the humanoid shape on the table.

It had taken some doing, no small amount of payments and a few veiled threats to convince the Vale Council to give up this prize. The General sighed once more as several scientists began pondering over the figure that lay, covered by the white sheet, on the cold metal surface. He'd been stunned when, after Qrow had rescued his niece and Miss Nikos from the top of the tower, he'd discovered that the orchestrator of the events that had almost undone them was…a single woman.

Even as his men had fended off Grimm hordes while a specially-equipped Bullhead squadron had plucked the woman-and the frozen Grimm Dragon-from the ruins of Ozpin's old office, he'd still been awestruck at how easily the woman-identified as "Cinder Fall" from her participation in the Vytal Festival-had inserted herself into the academy and into the games. His face fell-slightly-as he recalled looking down from the top of the tower, in the rubble of his old mentor's office, to see the ruins of the once beautiful academy below, swarming with Grimm and littered with the remains of the machines he'd brought with him to defend the games and the school. He'd done what he'd thought was right then…so long ago, it seemed.

It had taken no less amount of effort to convince the Atlas High Command that he was still fit for his position after the fiasco of the Vytal Festival, called "Iron-Head's Folly" by some in whispered tones. He'd defended himself in Court-Martial after Court-Marshal, before tribunals and boards of review and even before the very leaders of Atlas themselves.

Somehow, by some miracle, he'd managed to not be dishonorably discharged. Or executed.

It bothered him not in the least that he'd engineered this outcome by effectively throwing Ozpin and the Vale Council under the bus. No indeed: "Interference with defense strategy and crisis response" by Glynda-her heart was in the right place, even if she was misguided-and the insufferable Drunkard Qrow-he gritted his teeth at memories of the Huntsman's blatant disrespect of his position- had been openly accepted, even sympathized with: it was a mystery to the Atlas high command, with the efficiency of their system, how the other three kingdoms, mired in councils and bureaucracy, had not already collapsed into anarchy. Could they not see the sheer productivity that could be achieved with the wholly simple system of "orders given, and obeyed" and the Discipline of Military command?

Clearly, Ozpin could not.

Ironwood sighed internally: for a time, when he'd been an active Huntsman under Ozpin's leadership, he too had wondered about Atlas' system, whether it was heavy handed or overwrought with potential flaws.  
He had no such concerns now.  
A brief flash of anger filled him at the recollection of his being blamed for the disaster of the Festival: couldn't those fools see that if he'd been allowed to operate as he'd seen fit-!

Ironwood forced those feelings down. He respected Ozpin too much, even now, to blame him fully for his passive behavior. He'd spent too much time behind a desk, the old man. He spent more time thinking than doing, more concerned with collateral than the goal of the mission.

He'd been different, once, long ago, when Ironwood was a younger man…and more flesh than machine.

Perhaps what would soon occur would snap Ozpin out of the torpor he'd so unwittingly lowered himself  
into.

Perhaps it would allow him to make use of his impressive powers at last.

Perhaps.

"General."  
Ironwood snapped out of his thoughts as he turned to regard one of the scientists, his face hidden by a surgical mask and goggles. The others, all similarly clad, were clustered around the table, reading hand-scanners and positioning a variety of instruments over the surface.  
"we are ready to begin, sir, with your permission?" the Doctor continued, gesturing towards the two troopers at the head of the table, each of whom had a hand grasping the "head" of the sheet.

Ironwood paused for a moment.  
What he was about to do would, he knew, irrevocably strain, if not outright sever, the connections of trust he had forged with Ozpin, to say nothing of Qrow, the other academy leaders…

…Glynda…

"Proceed, Doctor." He said calmly, his hands clasped behind his back.

with a sharp nod, the Doctor turned away from the general and gestured towards the troopers.

Both men drew the sheet up the vaguely humanoid shape on the table as the Knights all trained their weapons on it with a mechanical *SNAP!* of weapons arming.

First to be exposed were a pair of petite, feminine feet, positioned as though they were perched on high heels. The skin was inhumanly pale, as though they were frozen. The color of the skin remained constant as the sheet continued its climb, revealing a pair of long, athletic legs, the kind many women would die for.  
The scientists didn't flinch or look away as the figure's torso was exposed, revealing that the figure itself was indeed a female, and her athleticism didn't stop at her legs: her naked stomach was tight and showed a hunt of muscle. A pair of hands, affixed in such a way that it looked like they were holding something, appeared at the figure's sides, and were, like the legs and feet, a sickly, pale color as were the arms they were attached to.  
A pair of round, perfectly-shaped breasts was exposed next, as the sheet was finally yanked roughly clear to reveal the woman's neck and head.  
A few murmurs finally came from the assembled men as a face, affixed in an enraged snarl, topped by a quaff of stylized ash-gray hair that descended over her shoulders, hiding one eye, was uncovered.

General Ironwood finally stepped over to the table and looked into the woman's rage-enlarged amber eyes, which stared down, as though she were directing all her anger at something in front of her…something…small.

"well, Miss Cinder Fall" he said coldly, as the scientists surrounding the petrified woman activated the machines that filled the surgical bay "you have taken something that doesn't belong to you."  
Straightening and stepping back, he turned and peered at a familiar-looking sarcophagus-like machine that stood at the "foot" of the bed.  
A similar machine had, until recently, been used to preserve the life of the frozen woman's predecessor in control of the powers of the Fall Maiden.  
And, like that machine, it could strip something very important away from the person inside the chamber. Something tied to those immense powers…something that, if unleashed, could be apocalyptic in destructive force.

for one final moment of hesitation, James Ironwood pondered if his actions were indeed the right decision. What he was about to do…under the noses of his compatriots…

"Quickly." He said to the men as they set to work on the young woman's body.  
"we don't have much time."

[=]

Light.

The first thing Pyrrha always noticed was the light.

As a piece of her slipped through the curtains surrounding the place her descent always seemed to take her, she stepped lightly, her feet barely touching the "ground" though no floor could be discerned.

The curtains were thin, gossamer-like silk, translucent, sparkling like the night sky. They were weaved in a menagerie of colors that, while different every time she descended, were all too familiar to her: Sometimes they were the familiar scarlet, bronze and black of her armor. Other times they were the orange, black and white of Jaune's combat gear, still others Ruby's red and black. Even Nora's pink, white and silver or Ren's black, white and green made appearances from time to time.

Pyrrha had never managed to figure out why this was, or what the curtains even represented. Maybe it was because these shades were familiar colors to her, comforting ones, ones she associated with friendship.

Yes. Perhaps.

The heat-never overwhelming, never painful, just…there-grew ever more noticeable, more discernible, as she gently pushed the curtains aside, going deeper. The soft glow began to grow brighter in her perceptions as she stepped forwards, drawing closer to…wherever she would end up this time. Like the Colors of the Curtains, each time her destination was different from the last, though they often looped back on themselves.

Sometimes, the redheaded athlete would find herself in the center of an arena, clad in her full armor, the bronze polished until it shone like gold, feeling energized like someone had plugged her into a power cell. An audience would roar with adulation, the familiar faces of her friends cheering her.  
Grimm or human opponents-or both-would attack her, but…it was like they were moving in slow motion. She would twist and spin and virtually fly, as her arms and legs became like forces of nature, destroying everything in their path, Milo and Akouo twirling and swinging, flashing under the spotlights, until she was standing triumphant atop a pile of defeated enemies. The audience around her would roar like the approving cries of gods, praising her and chanting her name.  
She would bask in this glory, one she secretly relished: the thrill of victory, utter and complete. The accolades that she begrudgingly accepted after the fact never entered her mind: the moment, the fresh thrill of immediate triumph, the scent of her enemies still fresh on her blade…

[=]

Other times, she would find herself standing in the middle of the Central Mistral Marketplace, decorated with colored lights and fir branches for the holidays, joyous singing carried on the breeze as snowflakes danced about.  
She would be dressed sensibly, but apparently not sensibly enough, for a chill would tear into her…until a pair of strong hands would lower a cloak over her shoulders and a pair of earmuffs would slide onto her head. Looking behind her in surprise, the face of her rescuer, like the colors of the curtains, would always be different.

Sometimes it would be Jaune, a peacoat wrapped around him and a stocking cap on his head as he smiled his big, dorky smile at her. Sometimes Ren and Nora would be with him, sometimes not. They would be laughing and pulling her along, sometimes offering trinkets or sweet buns thick with sugar and frosting. Nora would be shoving these into her own mouth till she resembled a squirrel, while Ren would stand by, smiling at the redhead and preparing to save her if she choked.

Still other times, it would be Ruby, standing on her toes to reach the tall redhead's ears, her hood pulled up around her grinning face and a pair of mittens on her hands. The tiny girl's face would beam out from the confines of her hood as she hugged Pyrrha about the waist. Rarely, Yang and the rest of Ruby's team would be there as well, but they always seemed…far away.

If it were Jaune by himself, he'd be holding something very different: a simple mug of her favorite lemon tea, the sweet smell filling her nostrils as he leaned in close and gently placed it in her frozen hands. His own fingers, sometimes bare, sometimes wrapped in gloves, would encompass hers as she cherished the heat of the mug, as the blonde softly caressed her knuckles and her wrists. He would smile his wide smile, lean in close and place a gentle kiss in her hair, another on her forehead, trailing down her nose until he reached her lips…

[=]

Other times it would be her parents and grandparents, arms full of presents and food and other finery of the season. This version of the scene took her flying back to the heady days of her youth before she set out on her path to becoming a Huntress, when the Nikos family was known more for their lavish holiday parties than the fame of one Pyrrha Nikos.

She'd find herself shrunken back into a child's innocent form, her huge green eyes sparkling as she stared at all the decorations and lights. Her Grandfather, a giant of a man with a full, thick beard, would scoop her into his arms as he laughed his deep, bass laugh, tickling her stomach through her coat, hand-made by her Grandmother, just for her, and shining holiday dress, scarlet with gold lace and black ribbon. Her crimson pigtails, held in place by bronze claps with little white bows on them, would dance like flames as she giggled gaily, the high-pitched laugh of youth and freedom.

Sometimes, the Marketplace would fade and give way to the palatial parlor of the family estate, the vaulted ceilings and chandeliers giving the old building the air of a castle or manor house. Regardless of the snowfall, laughter and singing would accompany the clinking of fine china and wine glasses as her extended family, aunts, uncles, great aunts and great uncles, cousins young and old, partook in the feast the family had prepared, all traditional Mistralian dishes and fine wines from around the world. Their clothes would befit the occasion: fine silks and fabrics, gleaming dresses and pressed jackets and polished shoes, would make the room glow like a treasure vault. Couples would twirl about the dance floor in the center of the room like the painted figures in music boxes, as soft waltzes drifted through the air.

At the far end of the room, flanked by the two grand stairways, would be a massive Fir tree, decorated with candles and shining tinsel, surrounded by presents, gleaming wrapping and ribbons reflecting the wide-eyed stares of Pyrrha and her cousins. At the signal from her weathered great-great-uncle, a veteran of the Great War, the youths would tear into the boxes and packages, gleeful laughter harkening the discovery of a sought-after item.  
Pyrrha herself would fondly recall some of her more treasured items: a hand-made scarf from her Grandmother, a new spring dress, a stuffed animal with a shining coat…

Welcome warmth, the warmth of safety and comfort, would fill her at the memory of her beloved grandfather carrying her exhausted form to bed, her hair drooping over his shoulder as the fir tree glowed like a beacon in the night, defying the howling weather outside…

[=]

And…sometimes, like today, her path would carry her…here.  
Just what "here" was, she wasn't entirely sure. The curtains would part, abruptly, no warning, no pattern…

…and she would find herself lying on a vast beach.

[=]

The bright, beaming sun glared down into her green eyes as her arm did its best to shield her from the harsh rays. Distantly, like it was far away, she would hear the gentle soothing lap of waves on a shoreline, the cawing of sea birds tickling at her ears.

Pyrrha blinked a few times to clear the spots from her eyes as she slowly sat up. The redhead stretched and arched her back, a moan escaping her lips as though she'd just been awoken from a deep sleep.

As she moved to a more upright position, she felt something else tickle her ears.

This was one part of this vision that truly confused her, as it always remained the same, regardless of what else changed: reaching up, she ran a hand through her mane of red hair, its length not only restored but increased: the crimson locks pooled about her waist as she sat, long strands spreading about her like a cape. Her bangs hung low over her eyes, and Pyrrha took a moment to push them aside. She knew they wouldn't stay without a means of holding them in place, but it gave her a moment to think as she managed to rise to her feet.  
As she did so, she looked down at herself, and her eyebrows arched as she dug one stocking-clad toe into the sand:  
She was still wearing her uniform.  
Not her full uniform, with her shoes and jacket, but in the same half-dressed state it had been when she'd gone under with Ruby. Pyrrha's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she brushed sand off her backside: she was usually wearing a Bikini, a Sundress, something more appropriate for her settings. A few times she'd even been naked.

She wiggled her toes in her black tights, feeling the hot sand surrounding her feet as she slowly pressed them into the soft ground. Her short skirt caught the slight breeze, fluttering against her legs, and her blouse puffed out as the moving air caught her open collar. As she ran a finger through her hair as it billowed out in the wind, she looked thoughtfully down at herself.  
She supposed she shouldn't have been too surprised, considering how the visions seemed to change so suddenly…but this was the first time this had happened. She idly wondered if she should-indeed, if she COULD- undress.

"mommy, mommy!"  
and on came the second confusing part of this vision.

Turning towards the source of the sound, something forced Pyrrha's face into a wide smile as two little girls, one blonde and the other a redhead, came tearing across the sand towards her, dressed in youthful swimsuits bedecked with cartoon fish and poka-dots. Behind the two, in swimsuits of their own, came two figures that were unmistakably Jaune and Ruby: the former had his oh-so beloved blonde head on display, while the latter's cape and hood was clearly visible.

Suddenly unbothered by the strangeness of her attire, Pyrrha dropped to her knees as the two girls scrambled up and leapt into her arms.  
The blonde's pigtails bounced as she nuzzled into Pyrrha's neck, while the redhead's ponytail danced like a flame as she kissed the teen over and over again.  
Logic fought with emotion in Pyrrha's mind, something asking whom these girls were, even as she held the closer, kissing each of them maternally and ruffling their hair.

They'd called her mommy…

The blonde looked up at her with a wide, toothy smile, and Pyrrha could see she had a familiar pair of deep emerald eyes…the same eyes that stared at her when she looked in the mirror each morning. Turning her head to look at the redhead-and what a familiar red that head was-she was met with a pair of blue eyes that to her recollection belonged to a certain blonde Huntsman. Both girls hugged her tightly, as though they hadn't seen her in a long, long time…

Jaune and Ruby drew closer to the trio as Pyrrha raised her head to smile at them. As she did so, she noticed for the first time that they seemed…older.  
Jaune was clearly well-built, his body more…chiseled, more masculine. His lines were more clearly defined, and she could tell he was a few inches taller.  
And, of course, there was the goatee on his chin. That would certainly make him look older.

Ruby, meanwhile, was definitely more curvaceous, her red and black hair extending well below her shoulders and draping over what was certainly the chest of a woman, not a teenager. She was still much shorter than her two companions, but still visibly taller than Pyrrha remembered. She smiled at Pyrrha as she adjusted the straps on the one-piece black swimsuit she wore.  
"you look tired" the young woman said, her familiar face smiling at the tall redhead.

 _tired?_ Well, Pyrrha supposed, she HAD been lying in the sand…

the two girls took her hands in theirs as she stood, starting to tug at her as they giggled, to pull her towards the water.  
"come on mommy, let's play!" the blonde said happily as she pulled at Pyrrha's arm.

she called her mommy…

"girls, why don't you go over with your aunts?" The Adult Jaune said as he knelt before the two children, affectionately ruffliing their hair "your Mommy still needs to rest."

"No, no, I'm fine!" Pyrrha felt herself say, her familiar desire to not disappoint people taking over for a moment as she looked down at the girls pleading expressions.

Fine? She was far from fine, some logical part of her mind said, she was standing on a beach half-dressed in her school uniform, with her two partners standing before her having somehow aged at least five years, and two adorable little girls calling her mommy.

And her hair was still misbehaving, she thought as the wind blew the long tresses into her face again.  
as she took her hands from the two little girls, who giggled again at her predicament, she huffed as she slipped her long mane behind her head once more, the wind now thankfully tugging it clear of her face.

Her annoyance vanished as a familiar hand suddenly brushed against her cheek. Looking up in surprise, she found Adult Jaune's smiling face staring into her own as his fingers gently caressed her skin.

"you need to rest." Jaune's smiling face said as his fingers moved, barely touching her. She found his gesture to be remarkably soothing, and felt her legs start to weaken, her knees start to bend…

[=]

All of a sudden, Adult Jaune, Ruby and the two little girls were gone, and the midday sun beating down on her was replaced with the orange sky of the late evening. A brief moment of maternal panic-something she still found strange-faded as her mind seemed to become…fuzzy.

"you need to rest."

Pyrrha lay on her back, the warmth of the sand surrounding her like a blanket. She felt the breeze on her skin, and realized idly that she was naked.  
more than that, she realized it didn't bother her in the least.

"you need to rest."  
Jaune's face, restored to its familiar teenage form, suddenly appeared directly above her own, so close she could feel his breath on her lips. She could feel rather than see his hands working their magic on her body, caressing places that jellied her spine and melted her muscles. She felt herself sinking deeper into the sand as his skin gently moved over her own.

"I'll be here when you wake up."  
Pyrrha felt herself blushing as Jaune began to delicately nip at her neck with his lips, all the while his hands seemed to dance hither and yon over her body. Despite the fact that his face was now gently brushing against hers, his hands were suddenly caressing her ankles, a sensitive spot before…that night, and she gasped aloud as trembles ran up the length of her body.

"I'll always be here for you Pyrrha."

Ruby's face, her familiar youth returned, was suddenly smiling down at her, as delicate fingers teased particular nerve endings and ran through Pyrrha's long hair. A pair of petite lips gently kissed the spot directly above her breasts as other hands massaged her long legs.  
the long crimson of her cape wrapped around Pyrrha like a blanket, further soothing her awareness away as an unfamiliar sense of…security seemed to swell within her.

"you hear me? I'll always be here for you."

Jaune and Ruby's faces both filled her vision, as they surrounded her, hugged her close, shielded her and embraced her.

"just close your eyes for now…rest…rest…"

Pyrrha's deep emerald orbs slipped silently closed

Rest…yes…just for a minute…

[=]

"You Need to Wake Up."

Pyrrha's eyes snapped open as an unfamiliar voice suddenly came to her ears.

all at once, Jaune, Ruby, the comfortable embrace, the warmth, the sound of the sea, all suddenly vanished.

Pyrrha's head whipped around in confusion and fear as the beach abruptly faded from sight, to be replaced with…

whiteness…

all around Pyrrha was nothing but whiteness…emptiness…isolation.

and a familiar face of a tan-skinned girl with chocolate hair…a scarred face atop a thin body, clad only in a simple white bra and skirt….with a bleeding hole in the center of her chest.

Pyrrha's eyes widened in recognition….and for some reason, true, raw fear suddenly filled every inch of her body.

"this...this is impossible... you can't be here..."  
 _  
memories flashing over her…standing in the dark confines of the Beacon vault, as teachers, people she'd trusted implicitly, confessed to lying to the world, as they explained a deep secret to her._

"you need to wake up before it's too late."

a pair of amber eyes stared into Pyrrha's terrified gaze, pleading, desperate.

"you...you died..." the redhead heard her own voice stammer.  
 _  
Her teachers, telling her that the fate of the world was resting on Pyrrha's shoulders…and it may cost her more than life and limb…_

"you need to wake up." The voice came again, though the girl's lips hadn't moved. Pyrrha tried to step back, but the farther she retreated, the closer she seemed to move TOWARDS the apparition that stared into her wide eyes. The figure slowly raised a hand, reaching out towards the redhead…

"S-Stay away!" Pyrrha's voice-so uncharacteristically fearful, seemed to beg.  
 _  
That they were asking her to possibly sacrifice her future…her team…her friends…her very sense of self…  
_  
"you need to Wake up!"

 _Memories of a terrible, agonizing pain as something cold and wet and utterly horrible tore away the boundaries of her soul, diving deep into the depths of her very essence, trying to strip away that which made her herself…and a vision of those Amber eyes filling her mind, screaming echoing in her ears as she'd cried out in pain._

Pyrrha was scrambling backwards at this point, her feet slipping helplessly on the cold floor, but no matter what all she could do was move inexorably towards the figure, the outstretched hand gently closing over her left breast…directly over her heart…

Cold, clammy fingers that seemed to be siphoning away her very life...

"YOU NEED TO WAKE UP!"

 _"NO!"_ Pyrrha finally screamed _._

The curtains suddenly closed around Pyrrha, the rainbow of comforting colors cutting her off from the horrifying sight as darkness surrounded her, throwing her away, away, away…

away from those Amber eyes...

[=]  
 _"Pyrrha…"_

the strangeness of her visions faded from her perceptions as a more familiar feeling registered in Pyrrha's mind….a deep, comforting blackness, the familiar cling of her school uniform, the softness of her bedsheets…

and…something tickling her inner thigh?

a familiar ceiling…one that greeted her most mornings…  
a familiar warmth…the softness of familiar blankets…  
A familiar scent…strawberry shampoo, one she'd bought for…

"Ruby?"

[=]

As Pyrrha slowly returned to consciousness, she looked around, getting her bearings back.  
she wasn't…wherever she'd been, she couldn't remember where, she was in her dorm room at Haven, lying on her…

Her bed! Yes, she and Ruby had gone into…wherever they went, when Ruby did her "silvershine" trick to help Pyrrha deal with the residual pain of her injuries.  
"mmm…."

Speaking of the redhead…  
something was STILL tickling her thigh…

Slowly, letting the stiffness slide away, Pyrrha turned her head, only to press her nose directly into a familiar red and black head of hair, one that smelled of the Strawberry shampoo she'd bought for her young friend. By the softness of her breath, Pyrrha could see Ruby was still under, her cheeks pillowed against Pyrrha's shoulder. Peering down over Ruby's body, down past her chest as the last of the silver energy wicked away and faded from Ruby's fingers where they were pressed to her chest…she saw Ruby's other hand.

Pyrrha smiled adoringly down at where Ruby's fingers were drawing loose circles on her legs, the girl's delicate fingers sliding gently over the material of her tights. The tall redhead didn't bother suppressing a blush as she bit her lower lip, shifting her legs slightly: the tickling sensation was tantalizing her in a way that, while enjoyable, could become distracting if she let it linger for too long.

Besides, they still had to get to class.

"Ruby…" she cooed sweetly "Ruuuuby…come on, time to wake up."

"mmmph…." The younger girl moaned "…five more minutes…"  
"I don't think we have five minutes…" Pyrrha said as she glanced at the clock on Nora's bed. No indeed, there were only three more minutes until the alarm was supposed to go off.

for some strange reason, Pyrrha felt a chill go up her spine at the thought that she'd woken up early…she usually stayed under all the way through. Strange…

"Come on, Ruby." She said, louder this time, and gently shook her partner's shoulders. Still, the girl's silver eyes didn't open, and her fingers continued unconsciously caressing Pyrrha's leg. Pyrrha's blush deepened as she felt Ruby's fingers start to slide HIGHER, towards the hem of her skirt…

"Lien for your thoughts" the redhead said with a touch of envy as she sighed and pushed herself into a sitting position, Ruby's hand slipping from her chest, but the other still idly caressing Pyrrha's leg.  
Ruby's head rolled off Pyrrha's shoulder to plop onto the pillow: a soft landing to be sure, but enough to snap her out of her torpor. Finally, with a reluctant sigh, Ruby's eyes opened, and she gazed through bleary silver orbs up at Pyrrha's smiling face.

"…is it time already?" she murmured, causing Pyrrha to chuckle.

"I'm sorry." She said, a giggle in her tone, as she poked Ruby playfully on the nose "you did seem to be on your way to a good time there."

"on my way to…" Ruby began to say, her brow furrowing, before she felt just WHAT her free hand was brushing against, and looked down at Pyrrha's legs. Her eyes widened as, of their own accord, her fingers suddenly drummed against Pyrrha's thigh, as though confirming it was, indeed, Pyrrha's leg wrapped in black tights that she was caressing. Pyrrha let out a small giggle at the tickle the gesture created, which only made Ruby's eyes go wider as her tall companion beamed at her.  
With a gleep of alarm, Ruby suddenly snapped fully awake, reclaiming her hand like it had been sitting on a hot iron.

"S-Sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Ruby began to stammer as her face went as red as her cape, but Pyrrha silenced her stammering as she rolled onto her knees and, cupping Ruby's chin in her hand, she gently kissed the smaller girl. Ruby's eyes went wider still, before they took on a dreamy expression and gently slipped closed.

They'd been like this for months now: after their first awkward kiss after Ruby's first "Silvershine"-made all the more awkward by Sun and Neptune stumbling upon them where they'd been sitting under a tree-they'd been slowly getting more adventurous, and letting the initial inhibitions they'd both had slide further and further away.

It had slowly become the same way with Jaune, when the three had sat down and had a long conversation about just WHAT was going on with the three of them. Pyrrha felt not the slightest touch of jealousy when she'd bumped into the two of them experimentally kissing shortly afterwards: indeed, she'd actually found it adorable.

None of them were really sure what it was that seemed to draw them to one another. And, they'd decided, it didn't matter, so long as they were all happy.

Though some of those nights when more than kissing came up...Pyrrha felt her own cheeks redden as she recalled a few nights prior, their three bodies enmeshed...

For a long moment, the two simply sat there, Ruby's knees, pulled tight against her chest, slowly relaxing as her own hand came up to twirl a lock of Pyrrha's hair. The tall athlete gently let her other hand slide behind Ruby's back, slowly pulling her closer...

The moment was shattered as, suddenly, the bleating of their alarm filled their ears, causing Ruby to break the kiss with a gasp of surprise. for an instant, the two stared at each other, faces as red as Pyrrha's hair, simply sucking in breaths.

Both girls turned their gaze to the device, glaring at it like it was the source of all evil in the world. The plastic and metal machine continued its bleating, unaffected by such things as human emotion. With a flick of her semblance, Pyrrha flipped the device off the bed to the floor, the movement causing the alarm to shut itself off.

"Back to the grind" Ruby said with a despairing sigh as she swung her legs off the bed "we've got an hour before class."  
Her tone carried not only exasperation, but…a small share of disappointment, as Pyrrha placed a hand on her companion's shoulder.

While she and Ruby both knew and expressed their feelings for the other, and their teammates knew when they needed to be left alone (or with Jaune, on those certain nights) having their intimate moments interrupted still put the young girl, still awkward with her feelings and the emotions they filled her with, in a bit of a downer mood. Pyrrha herself felt a fleeting moment of frustration.

"If we hurry, we can still catch the others in the mess hall, I think." Pyrrha said as she sat beside the petite girl, who was hunched over in disappointment, her face a deep red that had nothing to do with embarrassment. Pyrrha felt heat in her own cheeks, and the ghost of the tickle of Ruby's fingers on her thigh was still there. She smiled at Ruby, reaching over and using a finger to turn the girl's head to face her. Her bright smile seemed to lift Ruby's own spirits…slightly.

"and, better news, it worked." Pyrrha said, as she reclaimed her hands and stood, doing a few stretches and spreading her arms wide, rotating and crossing them without flinching, doing a few toe-touches "not even a sting: the pain's gone completely."

"That's good news." Ruby said, brightening up. Pyrrha stood, hands on her hips and she smiled down at her companion, the smile that mixed surrogate big sister, best friend and romantic partner all in one.

"And tell you what" Pyrrha said, a hint of seduction in her voice as, getting down on her knees before Ruby and taking her hands in her own "if Jaune's willing… you can show me where you were going with…" she used one hand to pat at her thigh "…that, tonight."

For the second time that day, Ruby's face went as red as her cloak, causing Pyrrha to burst into laughter as she kissed the younger girl on the forehead.

"Come on" she chuckled, pulling Ruby to her feet as she turned and reached for her uniform jacket "let's go see if Nora left any waffles for us."  
with a brisk nod, her face still red as a tomato, Ruby knelt down and grabbed her shoes.

Pyrrha grinned as, out of the corner of her eye, she saw an excited smile cross Ruby's still blushing face.  
 _  
Nothing like anticipation to brighten one's mood,_ the redhead thought as she slipped her jacket on, _Not that Ruby's the only one that's excited…  
_  
It was going to be a long day…


	4. Chapter 4: Stony Reflections

Like all the cities on Remnant, Mistral had places that time had forgotten. Places progress and the march of time had left behind in their quest for the future. In addition to old castles that dotted the periphery of the borders, where the man-made defenses and natural obstacles protected the city from the Grimm, elements of the city itself had been lost in the ever-ongoing passage of history.

One of these areas was the Works.

In ages past, when Mistral had to rely solely on its own means to sustain itself, vast factory complexes dotted with towering cranes and titanic smokestacks had provided for the wants and needs of the people. Mistralian craftsmanship had provided the nation, and for a time the world, with quality goods of every flavor, from furniture and clothing to electronics and automobiles. Day and night, on 24-hour shifts, the red glow of the Mills had lit up the horizon, the blare of train whistles and the bleat of ship foghorns a constant song, the strength of the nation ringing out from the thundering of trip-hammers and steel-forges and the constant rumble of assembly lines. The giant shells of the buildings, veined with moving cranes, rail lines, conveyor belts and transfer chutes, had breathed life into the nation in the years before the Great War, as industry and commercialism began to replace the nation's feudal past. The weapons churned out by the Works had kept Mistral alive and strong in the dark days of the war itself, both used against and provided to the other major kingdoms as alliances shifted and battlefields changed.

But as the Vytal Treaty took hold, and Atlas's robotics technology advanced, cheap Atlesian automated labor had caught up with, matched, and finally surpassed the efficiency of Mistral's industrial complexes. Workers that did not need to be paid at all were by far cheaper than workers who would toil for even slave wages, and were easier to replace. Robots didn't need vacations, or retirement, or benefits. In the face of dirt-cheap products coming out of the north, one by one, the old factories had gone bankrupt, workers laid off and mills shut down. A few manufacturers of heavy machine parts and some of the largest steel mills still soldiered on, but even these were rumored to have numbered days.

As the trip-hammer of industry had died in Mistral, the vast factories were abandoned, machinery sold for scrap or sometimes left where it had been, incomplete goods still sitting on assembly lines, awaiting the next shift that would never come. Slag heaps cooled to permanent mountains, lime piles slowly weathered away, coke piles and stacks of steel beams were slowly returned to nature. A low shroud of dust seemed to permanently cover the mass of buildings near the edge of the inland sea. Like the dying coals of cigarettes, the smokestacks had, one by one, ceased belching their constant streams of ashes and soot. They now stood, empty and lifeless like headstones for their forgotten past.

But these abandoned mills, once full of life and sound, were by no means empty and still.  
Besides the rats that scurried from hole to hole, the owls that made roosts in the darkened cavities of the cranes, the families of foxes and raccoons that huddled under the slowly collapsing piles of brickwork and stone…

Sentient life still lingered.

[=]  
In the dark interior of a mill that had once manufactured furniture and housewares, a trio of youthful figures huddled around a heating coil salvaged from one of the Mill's incinerators. Safely elevated off the floor, the coil provided more than enough heat for the three: a necessity, as winter encroached upon the Kingdom.

One of the figures stood up, a head of silver hair shining in the amber glow of the coil, holding a tin ration tray in each hand. A third sizzled on a smaller heating surface: one of several Survival packs they still carefully hoarded. As he turned to his two companions, he looked down to the first, who was curled into an Easy chair.

"Here."

The smallest of the three figures accepted the tray with a silent nod of thanks. Her pink and brown hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail, allowing a few bangs to spill about her deceptively cute face, only slightly marred with deep bags under her eyes. Her mismatched irises barely glanced down at the chunky beef stew that sat in the tray as she grabbed the attached fork and tucked into the gooey vittles.

Her almost fanciful clothes were torn and dirty, and a once-fancy pair of spat-boots had been replaced with a pair of Atlesian Combat boots: more efficient, considering the situation. A ragged parasol leaned on the chair beside her, and a Cigar sat on the armrest: she never smoked the stogie, but refused to let it out of her sight.

The Silver-haired young man looked at his tiny companion for a moment, before he sighed and turned to the other figure that sat, her legs pulled up to her chest, on one of the couches the three had dragged from the Mill's storage rooms: the dryness of the air had kept the furniture from giving over to rot. The seating also served as their beds, thanks to the blankets they'd recovered from bedding mill nearby.  
There was a surprisingly great deal of material goods left over in the old mills, the young man thought to himself for the hundredth time.  
Crossing over to the other couch, he held out the second tray to the other girl.  
The Green-haired girl barely acknowledged the plate the silver-haired young man offered her. She kept her eyes firmly locked on the small black item, wrapped in a ragged piece of canvas, that she had clung to ever since that dark day over a year ago. Her face was gaunt, her eyes sunken and bloodshot: her hair was ragged and roughly tended to, her bangs hanging over her face.

"c'mon Em." Mercury Black said, shaking the tray slightly "you gotta eat something."  
His partner didn't reply as she stared down at the crystal in her hands, still replaying the events of that night over and over in her mind…

[=]

 _"We can't leave her!" Emerald cried as Mercury dragged her towards the camouflaged Bullhead near the edge of the Beacon Campus. Here and there, gunshots could still be heard, punctuating the roar of airships taking off full of evacuees and the screams of Grimm.  
The two had, per Cinder's instructions, continued the broadcast of the attack on Beacon via their hacked CCTS connection. Mercury had focused on Atlesian droids attacking the people until the loss of Ironwood's battleship had caused them to shut down. Torchwick's scroll signal remained resolutely silent, despite repeated attempts to contact him. That had been the first sign something had gone wrong.  
Adam Taurus and his White Fang minions had, as per the deal, stormed the school and raised havoc, though Taurus himself had apparently gone off chasing one student in particular, Blake from Team RWBY, apparently. Cinder had found no issue with that: the Faunus had served his purpose to their plans, and she had been preparing to dispose of him, replace him with someone more…reliable. She herself had undertaken the climax of her mission, leaving the two to carry on with her drive to discredit the leaders of the Kingdoms. Emerald still remembered her disappearing into Beacon tower after Ozpin and two of his students._

 _Overhead, the roar of the Grimm dragon had gone silent all of a sudden, and remained so ever since. That also was by no means a good sign, especially coupled with the strange, unexplained burst of silver light that had suddenly encompassed the top of Beacon Tower. Emerald had tried to contact Cinder to make sure she was alright…and had been met with a silence that chilled her to her core._

 _"It's all gone south, Em!" Mercury replied as he forcibly pulled her up to the vessel. The tiny figure of Neo peered out from the cockpit as she started the craft's engines: neither of the two noticed the tears that fell from her eyes as she flipped switches and gripped the vessel's control stick. Overhead, Nevermores and Griffons still circled the school in swarms, their shrieking cries only adding to the noise around the three. Emerald tried to pull herself from Mercury's grasp, as she stared helplessly up at Beacon tower._  
 _"She needs our help! Something's happened, we need to-"_  
 _"Taurus' goons have already bugged out, and the Grimm are starting to swarm this place! Even the Hunters are pulling out! We stay any longer, we're Grimm feed, nothing else but!"_  
 _"But…But-!" Emerald stammered as Mercury all but threw her into the transport's passenger bay. As he crawled in himself, he shot a glare at Beacon tower for a moment, before shaking his head._  
 _"Get us out of here!" Mercury called up to the cockpit as he shoved Emerald into one of the seats and buckled her in._  
 _The Green-haired thief hadn't taken her eyes off the top of Beacon Tower, not caring about the sudden appearance of a pack of Beowolves charging towards the now active and moving Bullhead. As Mercury cursed profoundly and drove the creatures off with a fusillade from his boot-guns, Neo adding to the fire with the craft's mounted cannon, Emerald kept her gaze firmly fixed on the ruins of Professor Ozpin's office, hoping for some sign of life, hoping the inexplicably frozen form of the Grimm Dragon wasn't an indicator of the worst. As the Ship had accelerated away, she'd just barely made out two figures…and something that looked like a statue…  
_  
[=] _  
_

"We just have to FIND her, Em." Mercury said as he sat down beside her, setting the ration tray he'd offered her on the floor "once we do, we can use the rock we got from…what's her name, and we can get her back."  
Emerald's only response to his words was to squeeze the black object tighter in her hands… it had come out of the blue, along with a message, in the terrifying days in the aftermath of the attack…

[=]

The three had holed up in one of the late Roman Torchwick's safe houses in Vale: the Bullhead had been ditched in the harbor, and a swarm of Ursa's had ensured nothing would be left to tie it to them.  
For several days, the three had just…laid there.  
Neo had stripped out of her sweat-soaked clothes, and, not caring she was naked, had thrown herself into one of the beds and sobbed silently. Mercury wasn't sure, but he thought he'd heard a ragged, barely-perceptible "…Daddy…" escape from her lips as she'd curled into a fetal position and buried her head in her pillows.  
Emerald had locked herself in one of the other bedrooms and, in contrast to Neo, sobbed loudly and cursed profusely. Mercury found himself occasionally making sure the air wasn't turning blue, as the sounds of grief-and property damage- echoed from the sealed door of the bedroom. One of Emerald's blade-equipped pistols embedding itself in the door was his only response to an offer of food.

The Silver-haired teen himself had settled down one the small apartment's couch and kept an eye on the news…what little there was. The Safe house was, thankfully, in the area of Vale designated the "safe zone" and carefully patrolled by Huntsmen and the police. A double-edged sword, to be sure: he kept the curtains closed, lest anyone spot his suddenly famous face, but for the moment it at least ensured they wouldn't have to worry about the Grimm.  
Like his dad had said in those few moments when he was sober enough to speak clearly, the best thing to do in a bad situation is keep your head and get info.  
If that meant taking charge while the two women collectively mourned their lost superiors, so be it.  
Letting the repeated News stories-with the tower down, only Vale news was being broadcast-give some background noise, he'd wracked his brain for answers as to "what next?" Cinder's infuriating tight-lip-ness about just WHAT her final plan was after she acquired her super-powers naturally left her followers somewhat lost when she was abruptly removed from the picture.

For several long hours that first day, Mercury had contemplated just up and ditching the two distraught girls: they were clearly too torn up to be any use.

But, upon reflection, they were also the only allies he had in the world, at the moment. He was unlikely to be welcomed by the Huntsmen who were now unwittingly protecting him, Taurus was gone, off screwing around with his pack of furries, and Torchwick…  
He couldn't fathom the depths of Neo's relationship with Torchwick: it was clearly more than a partnership, though just what THAT meant he couldn't say. The little mute could still be eminently useful, provided she could be snapped out of her funk.

Mercury scowled, somewhat mournfully, as he thought of the red-headed crook who had provided them with so many resources: the guy was a prick, to be sure, but he was a prick after Merc's own empty heart. He had a head for numbers, planning, and patience, as well as a pragmatic streak that made him…surprisingly trustworthy, all things considered.

As for Cinder…

He'd followed the dark-haired woman out of intrigue at her goals, a slight sense of attraction to the woman (and WHAT a woman, woof…) and a personal delight in raising hell. He still smiled as he recalled Yang's face as she'd stared, helpless and confused, as her "brutal" leg shot was broadcast to the whole world. He smirked wider still as he remembered Ruby's face, realization dawning before Nikos' and the Robot girl's fight, and the subsequent beating he'd foisted upon the kid. The sight of her on her knees, weeping like a child, still brought laughter to his black heart.

But that was still self-serving: Cinder's plans had merely allowed him to exercise his own sadistic nature. A part of him, the careful, logical part, had always kept an "out" at the back of his mind, if he ever suspected Cinder was planning to dispose of him: break away, run to Ironwood or Ozpin or whomever with the data on his scroll, and tell them everything in exchange for amnesty or something to that end.

Heh, maybe get himself a medal for "uncovering" the nefarious "plot."

Emerald…her devotion to Cinder was something more. Compared to his lackadaisical manner, she'd always spoken to their leader with a tone of respect and submission, even referring to her as "ma'am."  
She followed the Woman around like a devoted puppy, obeying every and any command directed towards her without question, no matter how distasteful.  
And then there was the way she simply…looked, at their leader. Mercury had pondered as to just WHAT Cinder had promised the green-haired thief: he'd never been told and had frankly never thought to ask.

Well, whatever her mood was, Em clearly didn't feel like sharing now. Nor did Neo, even if she at least occasionally crawled out of her bed (still undressed, not that Mercury was interested in moping chicks who looked like they could be his little sister) to numbly consume some of the canned goods Torchwick had stashed in the small kitchenette.

It was on one of those days, a few weeks after they'd arrived in the city, that everything had changed.

[=]  
 _The slight buzz of fruit flies emanated from the rough stack of Beef stew cans, Spam tins and Soda cans that sat next to the couch. All of which were contributing to a growing odor that was starting the fill the small apartment: the tang of rotting food and unwashed bodies, sweat and mold and the deceptively sweet smell of decomposing fruit._

 _Mercury had long-since gotten used to the scent, and only barely reacted to the insects that landed on him as he slouched on the apartment's couch. He'd idly wondered for a time how long the food was going to hold out, but at this point, he'd simply stopped caring._  
 _Nothing really mattered now._  
 _In the Week since they'd holed up here, the three members of Cinder's faction had slowly slipped into a state of apathy. On those few moments Neo had slumped out of her bedroom, wrapped in a stained bedsheet and nothing else, to numbly eat something, Mercury had looked her over in an analytical manner._  
 _She wasn't-quite-gone. Losing Torchwick had clearly unhinged her…but not broken her. Given enough time, she might be able to function as she once had._  
 _And she'd dared a few quick gazes at himself, he'd noticed._  
 _as for their other companion…_  
 _Emerald's emotional tirade had long since given way to silence, a stony silence that made Merc wonder if she'd killed herself. He wouldn't be shocked._

 _As the News repeated the same line about the Fall of Beacon for the Hundredth time, he heard a door open within the apartment._

 _Mercury, not caring that if he sat on the couch any longer he'd likely be absorbed into it, barely reacted as Neo, still clad only in a bedsheet, appeared, her hair matted and her face red and puffy, and slumped down next to him, curling her legs up underneath her and, to his surprise, resting her head on his shoulder. She cocked an eyebrow at the TV, which was playing, surprise, surprise, an actually NEW story._

 _Mercury cocked an eyebrow at the sight of Jaune Arc, leader of Team JNPR, single-handedly beheading one of the last Goliaths that had infiltrated the city's walls, to the adulation of the Huntsmen and Atlesian troops around him. The Blonde had been low on the group's radar: indeed, he was only on it at all due to his connection to Nikos…wherever she was now._  
 _"huh." The Silver-haired teen muttered, "guess he had some fight in him after all. Who'da thunk."_  
 _Neo, as usual, said nothing, though Merc thought he heard a bemused "uh" of agreement._

 _And it was then that Emerald had tugged her ransacked door open and stepped into the living room._

 _Mercury DID react to this: Emerald hadn't come out of her room once since she'd locked herself in days before._  
 _"So you're still alive, eh?" He quipped halfheartedly._  
 _Emerald didn't reply. She simply stared at the silver-haired teen and the ice-cream girl for a long moment, before looking around. Her gaze was red as Cinder's dress, bloodshot and wide: a "thousand yard stare" his Dad had called it. Her face was puffy and her lips were dry and cracked._

 _She seemed to fall deeper into despair as she noticed the squalor of the apartment: it hadn't exactly been "clean" before, but to try and make it livable was clearly a forlorn hope now. Mercury idly wondered if THAT was what Cinder had promised her: a home, a place where she could-_

 _"What now?"_

 _Mercury jumped at the unfamiliar voice that suddenly came to his ears and, for a wonder, Emerald seemed to snap out of her funk for a moment out of sheer incredulity. Both turned their heads to stare at the tiny girl who was curled up on the couch._

 _Neo, her head still on Merc's shoulder, reached over to one of the side tables surrounding the couch and, opening the drawer, pulled out a familiar-looking black cigar. The smell of tobacco briefly overpowered the background stench, before it was swallowed up and consumed by the odor._  
 _She rolled it in her hands as she drew it close, taking a long sniff of the tobacco. Her eyes seemed to glaze over as she stared at Torchwick's stogie._  
 _"Roman would have thought of something." She continued._

 _Mercury, still boggled that the small girl could actually, well, TALK, gaped for a few seconds more, as Neo adjusted the bedsheet she was wrapped in to better hide her surprisingly expansive chest. She seemed to nuzzle deeper into the silver-haired teen, as though trying to find solace…._

 _"ah…well, we…huh." He stammered, even as Emerald slowly slipped back into her shell-shocked state…though still cocking an eyebrow at the fanciful criminal-ette._

 _Looking between the two women, who he noticed had their attention on him, he sighed, before attempting to express the plan he had been forming. Sitting up straighter, he began to speak._  
 _"well…I was thinking we could at least-"_

 _There was a sudden knock at the door._

[=]

The Silver-haired teen thought back to that knock…everything about it felt off.  
For all his aloofness and carefree nature, Mercury Black, like his father, knew when to keep his ear to the ground, and did it more often than one might think.

No footsteps had approached the door. The knocks had sounded…strangely hollow, like something that...wasn't there, had rapped its hand on the wood. No footsteps had, in turn, fled the doorway, leaving the strange package behind…and the letter attached to it.

As he'd stepped back inside, Emerald covering the door with one of her pistols as Neo held her sword-parasol, stark naked after the sheet slipped from her lithe body, ready to deal with whomever was out there, Mercury had examined the strange object left behind.  
But there hadn't been anyone out there. Just a small package, wrapped in canvas, with a note on a piece of parchment paper attached to it.

For the thousandth time, Mercury drew that piece of parchment out of his shirt: the edges were worn, ragged with constant folding and unfolding, but the paper itself refused to die.  
Unfolding it, he read the letters carefully scribed onto it, a delicate handwriting that always seemed ever so slightly different every time he read the graceful curves of the letters, as he had over a year prior, with Neo and Emerald looking over his shoulder after they'd verified the package wasn't a bomb.

 __

 _My friends._  
 _No doubt you are confused as to what all this is, and why I have chosen to contact you. Allow me to explain._  
 _I am Cinder Fall's benefactor. My name is unimportant for now, as is my location. But what I have to offer will no doubt peak your interest._  
 _As you know, Cinder was pursuing the powers of the Fall Maiden. She achieved this, and acquired the powers for herself. However, something…unforeseen, intervened to undo her plans._  
 _Even I was surprised by the intervention of this energy, this force of light. I could not predict fate placing this energy at that location at that time. But what is done is done._  
 _And, if you wish to attain everything you were promised, to put things back on course, and to avenge your fallen comrades, you will keep reading._

 _Cinder Fall was but one of many of my agents working on Remnant. While her task was important to my plans, her unfortunate loss may yet prove to be a new opening. This crystal is key: protect it at all costs. It is vital to retrieving the power Cinder was pursuing…and to retrieving Cinder herself. For now, stalk the one called Pyrrha Nikos: she is the second key._

 _And now, children, away to Mistral: that is where the next stage shall begin._  
 _When the time is right…I will contact you again._

[=]

And away to Mistral they had went, at Emerald's quite enraged insistence. Any authority Mercury had possessed had vanished in an instant.  
Using most of what remained of their lien (another problem of Torchwick's loss: he took most of the locations of his squirreled away cash deposits with him) and one of Torchwick's contacts, a new Bullhead had been procured, along with a few month's supplies. Getting the ship into and subsequently out of Vale, even with the heightened state of security, had been surprisingly easy.

Deciding to hole up in the abandoned complexes of the Works had likewise been easy: for one, it allowed them to hide the Bullhead, lest they have to procure another.  
for another, they were hardly alone out here…and that worked to their advantage. It was generally live-and-let-live amongst the squatters, drug addicts and criminals.  
And a few well-placed beatings hadn't hurt either. They were generally unbothered.

Mercury had idly wondered why he was even bothering himself, to go along with all this: his role was done, and Cinder's promises, while enticing, weren't anything he couldn't live without. He Suspected Neo simply wanted revenge for losing Torchwick.

Emerald, now…Emerald…

She'd gotten…weird.

Emerald had grabbed up the strange, unshaped crystal that was wrapped in the old, ragged Canvas before either of her companions could touch it, and had cleaved ot it ever since, never letting it leave her person. In those few moments, as now, that he had gotten a chance to see it, it had remained unchanged: a black crystal, looking rather like a Dust shard, but…malformed, rough, like it had simply been pulled out of the ground.  
and possessing a slightly purplish glow…

"We'll get Cinder back, Em." Mercury said, as, hesitantly, he placed a hand on the dark-skinned girl's shoulder. She'd remained as silent as Neo more often than not, barely eating, barely sleeping…and more often than not simply staring, enraptured, into the strange crystal…like it was showing her something…

He flinched back almost immediately as Emerald whipped her head around, her bloodshot eyes fixing him with a cruel, hateful glare.  
No…it looked more like she was staring THROUGH him…into his very soul….

"It's not just her…" Emerald said, her voice hoarse…and at the same time alive with sudden rage. Mercury stared at her for a moment, before a sizzling POP! From the third tray on the heater drew him away from the green-haired girl, cursing as his own dinner started to burn.

As she had barely reacted to his approach, Emerald did not react to his departure from her side as he rushed back to the heater. She had more important issues on her mind.

She didn't bother to hide the hate in her voice as she recalled the sight of the redheaded figure crawling towards her savior's petrified body as Neo had piloted the ship away. She would never forget…and certainly never forgive…

"…Pyrrha Nikos…I will make you pay…" she hissed, her tone hateful, wrathful…almost inhuman.

Had either of her companions been paying close attention, they might have noticed a slight fiery sheen suddenly course over the girl's eyes as the dark crystal glowed in her hands...

and then, from the freight dock close by the three's temporary home, something Knocked on the door.

[=]

"Ruby, Slow down!" Pyrrha laughed as the shorter girl dragged her across the campus courtyard. The mid fall breeze was crisp without being chilly, and leaves blew about the two girl's legs as they ran, Pyrrha's left hand clasped in Ruby's right.  
Fall leaves…fall…

Pyrrha clamped down on the sudden surge of emotions-not now, _NOT NOW_ -as Ruby, huffing slightly, smiled over her shoulder at the taller girl.  
"But I'm all fired up though!" Ruby replied as she seemed to go FASTER, almost pulling Pyrrha off her feet.  
"There's plenty of time!" the older redhead replied with a laugh as she let her partner drag her along "we'll still be able to eat before class!"  
"But I just wanna get there NOOOWWWWWW-!" Ruby moaned as she galloped along, her legs a blur in the morning sunlight. Pyrrha smiled at her young companion, watching the sun glint off her red and black hair as the beams streamed through the trees that lined the campus' central avenue. She'd learned that Ruby was not one for patience. Her semblance alone was evidence enough of that. Despite Pyrrha's best efforts to coach her, it seemed some things were hard-wired.

"If you used your semblance we'd be there already…" Pyrrha muttered idly at the thought of Ruby's special ability.  
Not idly enough, it seemed, as Ruby suddenly stopped short, so short that Pyrrha actually ran into her.

"Great idea!" Ruby said excitedly as she whirled, wrapping her arms around Pyrrha's waist and squeezing her tightly, her cape flapping about the pair "why didn't I think of that?"  
A sudden surge of apprehension filled Pyrrha as she recognized the fierce expression on Ruby's face, as the smaller girl turned her gaze towards the distant cafeteria. She suddenly stepped into a position like she was about to begin a footrace.  
"Wait, Ruby, no, wait-!" Pyrrha yelped nervously.

With a sudden flutter of red rose petals, the two vanished.

[=]

(AN: OKAY we're back.  
The Story's gone through a bit of a re-write in the past few weeks. Needless to say, things are about to get interesting for our heroes…but also much, much more difficult for poor Pyrrha….

anyway, stay tuned!)


	5. Chapter 5: a Haven for Thoughts

_The City of Vale._

Ozpin, former headmaster of Beacon Academy, stared out across the distance from his hospital bed, where he had lain for several months now since his rescue.  
How he had survived for more than three months trapped under the ruins of Beacon tower…that was his secret.  
The night was cool as winter approached: meteorologists were already predicting an early snowfall, and sales of winter coats and boots had climbed in recent days.

He gazed through his wizened eyes at the towers of his former fiefdom, still standing in the distance at the peak of the natural harbor around which the City of Vale was built.

Once alive and vibrant with color and charm, nowadays the city looked…faded, like a poster that had had its colors bleached from too much sunlight. The interior of the city still retained its classical beauty, many of the buildings that had been wrecked in the Grimm Incursion rebuilt or replaced. The overhead rail line that kept the city connected had been repaired, and some semblance of normalcy had been restored.

That was not to say everything was as it should have been: many parts of the city still lay in ruins, the jagged shells of buildings sticking up like dragon's teeth from the rubble. The Harbor could only accept ships periodically, as debris was still being cleared.

And then there was the aura of fear that permeated…everything. The confidence that had once held Vale up, strong and resolute, had been shattered by the overwhelming failure of Atlas and the Huntsmen to defend it from those forces that sought Humanity's destruction.  
Between the apparent image of Ozpin's "bloodthirsty" students at the Vytal festival, the attack on the city by the White Fang and the Grimm, the sudden turn of Atlas' forces against the citizens, the loss of the CCTS (believed to also be the fault of one of Ozpin's students) and the complete loss of Beacon academy…

Ozpin's brow furrowed and he looked away from his former school.  
Even if it was rebuilt, it had been made clear to him by the Vale Council that it would no longer be "his" Beacon.  
Indeed, it seemed nothing would be the same anymore: the Huntsmen were operating under a much tighter scrutiny these days.  
And then there were his Students themselves, scattered to the winds, sent into an unknown future out of sheer need to keep up their training.  
Professor Blutarch Nilrem, Headmaster of Haven and one of Ozpin's closest Confidants, had kept him informed through his own means about the status of Ozpin's students at his Academy, as had Professor Apache Neiklot of Shade. So far, outright conflict between the students had been avoided, save for a great deal of torment that had been foisted upon a certain redhead…  
Ozpin briefly felt a pang of regret for having dragged Pyrrha into all this mess…had he known it would go so wrong…  
"Poor girl." He said to himself. She couldn't even begin to fathom just how deep she would still unwittingly go...

As for those students at Atlas…

Ozpin had been more than reluctant to send any of his charges into Ironwood's hands: his old friend was far and away lost to him, and he feared daily for their safety.  
His brusque, militant nature, his complete lack of subtlety or patience, his flagrant disregard for the lives of the innocent…  
To say nothing of that abomination of a robot he still kept with him….

The last straw had come a few days prior when Glynda, her blonde ringlets mussed and her face lined in exhaustion, had stormed into his room, looking ready to explode, and informed him just WHAT James had done right under their noses…

[=]

"-and then it went BOOM!" Nora concluded, throwing her hands in the air to accent her words.  
"It actually just shot a few sparks into the air." Ren added as he sipped at his coffee cup.  
"mm-hmm." Jaune replied, poking at the eggs on his breakfast tray: he'd already handed off his own waffles to Nora, who had promptly inhaled them on top of her own and half of Ren's.  
His remaining breakfast had been barely touched, and had long since gotten cold.

By contrast, a small mountain of coffee cups sat beside him, their contents fully drained: Jaune usually doped his coffee with more cream and sugar than coffee itself. Now, he tended to take it black, hot and fast. And he certainly seemed to need it.  
Even a casual passerby could see the deep bags under his eyes.

Every few minutes he would glance up at the clock that hung at the peak of the vast room, at the moment filled with Hunters in training, nervously biting his lower lip every now and then.

The N-R component of team JNPRR glanced at each other as Nora sat back down.  
"They're FINE, Jaune." Ren reassured his friend as the blonde looked up at the clock again. Jaune said nothing as he cast his gaze back down at his breakfast, leaning an elbow on the table while he pressed a fist into his cheek.  
Nora and Ren could see their teammate was exhausted: he seemed to lurch more than he walked, and couldn't speak more than four or five words without a yawn. His skin was pale, and his blonde hair seemed faded towards white. He was also looking rather…Gaunt.  
"YOU need to worry about yourself, Jaune." Nora said, her bubbly persona sliding away as she reached across the table to place a hand on his arm. He finally looked across at his two teammates, his blue eyes bleary and yet ever more vibrant in the dark lines that surrounded them... to say nothing of how bloodshot they were.  
"You're barely eating, and Pyrrha's nightmares have kept you from getting proper sleep." Ren said. He held up a hand as a storm cloud crossed Jaune's face.  
"I'm not suggesting you leave her to be alone: goodness knows she is far worse off than she's letting on, we can all see that. But burning yourself out isn't going to help her at all."  
Jaune let out a half-hearted scoff.  
"I'm not "burnt out," guys, I'm just…" he paused, letting out an enormous yawn "…I'm just a little tired, it's no big deal."

"Maybe not to you, but what about to us?" Ren put in. he paused to sip at his coffee "if you are not in a fit state to fight, it will put us all in danger as we undertake missions."  
"if you're not in a fit state to go to CLASS, you might put YOURSELF in danger, Jaune." Nora added. Jaune cocked an eyebrow at the redhead as she continued, a comforting smile on her face.  
"We know you're worried about Pyrrha: we all are, believe me. But she has got to work out her issues on her own: we can't do it for her, as much as we'd like to. You know as much as we do that she still blames herself for what happened. All we can do is to be there for her if and when she finally falls apart, and you've been there the most."  
"We know she's done a lot for you, and you just want to return the favor." Said Ren, "but you are still a student, a student at an academy that, may I remind you, is not the one you were accepted to."

He turned slightly, gesturing out towards the other students that filled the vast interior of the cafeteria: the sea of black and silver Haven uniforms were spotted, here and there, with splashes of the red and brown of Beacon Uniforms, the other students who had been transferred here in the wake of Beacon's fall. These latter students tended to be clustered together, separate from the majority: the divide was clear for all to see…as were the reasons for that divide….

"We are vastly outnumbered here, our team especially, and if Professor Winchester and the actions of the other students towards Pyrrha-and by extension ourselves- is anything to go by, we are certainly not welcome." Ren continued. He shot a pointed look at his team leader.  
"You have been slipping recently, in the classroom and the training ring: making mistakes that frankly take you back to your early days."  
He paused for another moment.  
"And I fear, with some justification, that if you continue on your present path…this team may end up with its normal FOUR members instead of the five it possesses right now."  
he took a long sip from his coffee cup, his pink eyes never leaving Jaune's face.  
"Just think about that."

Jaune stared, shocked, at Ren's blunt words, both for the words themselves and their meaning…and the fact that Ren had just said more to him in those few minutes than Jaune could recall him speaking in the past year.

[=]

It had been a long year, helping Pyrrha cope with her sudden reversal of fortunes and her physical recovery. While the two had opened up their hearts to each other, and later on to Ruby as well, one did not need to be a psychic to see Pyrrha still had a long way to go…and how deeply that night had affected her.  
Those first few days after he'd come back to her, and the two had confessed their feelings, had been joyous…and yet at the same time terrible.

Pyrrha had been wrecked, utterly: she'd lost weight in those weeks he was gone, and slight muscle atrophy had occurred due to her stationary position. His first time seeing her nude had been helping her bathe rather than anything sensual…not that they both hadn't had faces as red as Pyrrha's hair from the experience. She'd barely been able to stand even with crutches, and her injuries limited her range of movement: Jaune'd had to feed her most of her meals due to her being unable to adequately move her arms because of her chest wound.

Of course, this is Pyrrha Nikos we're talking about here. She didn't get the nickname "Invincible Girl" for kicks and giggles. That sense of pride that Jaune found so attractive had come storming back to the fore…once the two of them had stopped blubbering over each other like babies, that is.  
With the emotional support of Jaune and her teammates and the assistance of Taiyang Xiao Long, whose experience dealing with injuries at Signal combat school proved invaluable, Pyrrha had pressed herself into physical therapy and getting herself back in shape, to say nothing of increasing her skill level with her semblance. From the early days where Jaune had been helping her simply learn to stand up again, her bad ankle bound in an air cast, Pyrrha had demonstrated the same optimism she'd always presented at Beacon.

She had been determined to get back on her feet, working hard, fighting through the pain...though she had tried to rush things more than once: Jaune still recalled a bad fall she took when she tried walking without assistance for the first time. She pushed herself hard, at times risking reopening her wounds, but she'd never let her exhaustion show…to anyone except Jaune, that is. She'd improved course by course with the help of Ruby's father, her teammates, her aura and of course Jaune himself, moving from simple exercises to full-on combat training in a matter of weeks...

But, Jaune thought with a mental sigh, she was by no means fully recovered. Even now, months later, when she was by all observations back at full spec, she still suffered from the debilitating flashes of pain that reduced her to a shambles.  
But the physical pains she'd suffered truly paled in comparison to the torment she'd had forced on her emotions.

It hadn't been until the team arrived in Mistral a few months later that the real terrible news had come out: in Pyrrha's own home, and indeed around the world…People were blaming HER for Vale's fall, blaming her "murder" of Penny for inviting the attack on Vale and her failure to save the CCTS for the current state of affairs.

Jaune could still remember how Pyrrha had come within a hair's breadth of breaking down at that news…but had held it in. She'd walked off to be alone and had sat, silent, for a long time afterwards.  
But the very next day, she'd been back to her old helpful self, smiles and optimistic words as was her norm.

Pyrrha was always the optimist, never one to let her feelings drag her friends down: her casual response to her latest pain flash was proof enough of this, how she'd waved it off so easily, insisting she was fine.  
She always did. No matter what the situation, she always kept a brave face on, never letting others know if she was truly upset or not. Looking back, he wanted to slap himself for how obvious she was sometimes: he still cringed at the memory of his denseness when she'd asked him about his problems right before the dance, and she'd barely hid her sadness when he's said Weiss had rejected him.

But even so, Jaune could see the strain at the edges of her eyes as she occasionally struggled to keep a smile on her face. He noticed her occasional limp before rainfall, the wincing as her ankle pained her. He had seen Pyrrha's attempts at concealing her guilt over that night, the times she'd hidden sadness, and how she'd beaten down tears with brute force at some of the scathing comments she'd overheard directed at her or the hateful messages people had sent her.

He'd managed to intercept a few of the worst ones, even snatching a letter right out of her locker while she'd been distracted with her armor.  
He would never tell anyone what it had said…what it had DARED suggest she do to herself…

He supposed that old saying was true: the only thing people wanted more than a hero…was a fallen hero.

"Let Ruby take Pyrrha's dream duties for a bit, just to let you get some sleep, okay?" Nora asked with a small smile, breaking him out of his train of thought, "We're not asking you to give her up, Jaune, just for you to make sure you're in a fit state to help her when she really needs you."  
"She needs me NOW…" Jaune began to say, before he broke off with another yawn.  
Ren sighed, as Nora squeezed his arm a touch tighter.  
"Jaune…" she said, a touch of iron in her tone "what we're saying is, wouldn't taking care of _yourself_ help you take care of Pyrrha?"

"what's that about me?"

The three Beaconites jumped in surprise as, in a flurry of rose petals, Ruby and Pyrrha suddenly materialized at the table. Pyrrha stumbled for a moment, placing a hand to her forehead.  
"A little warning would be nice next time, Ruby…" the redhead mumbled as Jaune shot to his feet, his hands grasping her shoulders to steady her as she shook her head.  
"You okay?" he asked her, his worry clear. Pyrrha smiled at him as she steadied herself, placing a quick peck on his cheek as she nodded.  
"All cleared up." She replied as, as she had done with Ruby, she did a few quick stretches "no more ouchies, no more aches." She smiled over at Ruby, who was already making a Beeline for the serving area, "and Ruby's going to need a recharge after all that."  
Nora stared at her teammate, incredulous.  
"Did…did you just say "ouchies?" she asked, amazed. For Pyrrha, Miss Proper Pronunciation, to use such a…childish term was unheard of. Pyrrha smiled at the wide-eyed stare on Nora's face.  
"I was a kid once too, you know!" she replied with a slight giggle as she turned to follow Ruby towards the serving counter.  
However, she stopped short, her smile slipping into an expression of concern as she looked over her boyfriend, noting the pile of coffee cups sitting beside his seat.  
"Jaune…are YOU Okay?" she asked, as though noticing the bags under his eyes for the first time. She turned to face him, reaching up to touch his gaunt face.  
"I'm fine, fi-" he broke off at a sudden yawn " –ne, just a little…um…"  
"burnt out?" Nora quipped, earning a quick glare from her team leader.  
Pyrrha gently pressed a hand to Jaune's cheek, looking him over. Her green eyes widened slightly as she took his other hand in hers.  
"Jaune…" she said, a concerned tone to her voice, before Jaune smiled brightly and waved her on.  
"Go on, eat up! You've got dueling class today, you'll need your energy!" he said, his normal jovial laugh in his voice.  
Pyrrha stared at him, her concern not ebbing an inch, as Jaune let out another deep yawn. Then, she perked up as though something had struck her.  
She leaned in close and whispered in his ear, something Ren and Nora couldn't hear…though the way Jaune's face turned as red as Pyrrha's hair indicated well enough what she'd implied.  
With a giggle, Pyrrha kissed him once more on the cheek, before releasing his hand and turning away.

Nora and Ren looked at each other as Jaune watched their redheaded comrade walk towards the serving stations, a dumbstruck look still on his face.

Clearly, something more…drastic was in order…

[=]

Pyrrha flipped into the air, Milo flashing in the overhead lamps as she deflected Sun's incoming strike, sending the Faunus sprawling to the floor with a well-placed blow to the shoulders. Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang skittered off into the shadows as the air was violently forced from the Faunus' lungs.  
Still in the air, Pyrrha swung her legs out, catapulting herself off of Sage's massive sword as he swung in from above. A finger latched onto the edge-not enough to cut, just to grasp- altered her trajectory enough that she slid sideways to dodge a lightning blast from Neptune's weapon, which she met with a quick barrage from Milo's rifle mode.  
Still riding Sage's massive blade, she levered her legs under her, shifting her weight to force the sword, now unbalanced with her extra bulk, into the floor of the arena.

She flipped Milo into Sword mode, delivering a swinging cut upright which the green-haired giant barely dodged: but he was forced to release his sword, which was Pyrrha's goal all along as she tucked and rolled off his blade and onto the floor.  
Latching onto the massive blade with her semblance (no point in hiding it anymore, she kept reminding herself) she launched the massive bulk of the blade straight into Sage's middle, folding him over and sending him flying out of the arena.  
Pyrrha's danger sense tickled her mind, and she rolled to the right as Scarlet's cutlass whisked through the air where her neck had been a moment before. Snapping back to her feet as the red-haired SSSN member completed his swing, she was in a perfect position to body-block the frail-teen, who was off-balance due to his attack.  
In a moment, Scarlet joined Sage outside the ring, but Pyrrha did not revel in her victory, having to dive clear of another lighting blast from Neptune's gun. She respected the weapon: like her, the Mistralian teen's weapon of choice could alternate between a series of different modes. The Rifle mode that currently kept her dodging a weaving as electric blue blasts filled the air, a Guan Dao and a trident, all of which she'd become familiar with in prior training duels. Neptune's strategies with the weapon had frequently kept her guessing, and she'd even been caught off-guard by some of his sudden changes in tactics.

But she had a surprise in store for this round. In conjunction with Ruby, she'd been working on an adjustment to Milo for several months now.  
Raising Akouo, which had spent most of this particular duel safely nestled on her back, she suddenly stopped evading and charged.  
This had the intended effect of making Neptune pause for a moment in his barrage, before he suddenly got a determined look on his face.  
with a flick of his finger, he began to flip his weapon into one of it's melee modes….  
and then Pyrrha struck.

Flipping a newly-installed switch on Milo's trigger guard, the sword blade shifted and seemed to fold sideways. The straight blade curved, small gaps appearing along its length as it altered form.

Pyrrha's old Milo had been destroyed by Cinder Fall…naturally a new one was required.  
However, the new crafting also left room for…refinements. To say Ruby had been overjoyed when Pyrrha had asked her to help incorporate the new mode for her already-impressive weapon would be an understatement. Long nights while Pyrrha had been in physical therapy had been filled with the two going full-tech geeks, pouring over blueprints, trimming and shaping metal and making adjustments. But their work was finally about to pay off.

In a second, one second too long for Neptune, Pyrrha swung the newly-formed Scythe blade up…

…and jammed it into one of the gaps appearing in Neptune's weapon as it changed forms, preventing the trigger housing from folding up into the rest of the weapon.  
Neptune's gobsmacked look made the setting all the more satisfying, and Pyrrha couldn't help a triumphant grin as, with a simple jerk, she yanked the weapon from Neptune's hands while simultaneously delivering a body-blow with her shield. The Blue-haired teen stumbled backwards…

…right across the demarcation line.  
"Set and Match." A voice boomed from the shadows.

[=]

Pyrrha slowly stood to a full upright position as the lights came up, revealing the rest of Haven's training amphitheatre and the addled forms of team SSSN scattered about the room. Above her, students watched from the bleachers, murmuring to each other. A few clapped politely.  
"Excellent work, Miss Nikos."  
"Thank you, Professor." Pyrrha said cordially as Professor Stonewall, Haven's head of combat training, stepped forwards, scanning a data pad with his slate-gray eyes. The cybernetics of his prosthetic left arm buzzed as he tapped a few commands into the list. His shining red beard shone in the overhead lights.  
"That's three times this week you've single-handedly defeated a full combat team." The older man said with a congenial smirk "at this rate you'll pass my class before the semesters halfway over."  
Pyrrha smiled at the Professor's praise, but couldn't help a slight twinge of guilt that crossed over her.  
"I'm not that impressive, professor…" she began to say, before an anguished cry from behind her drew her attention.  
She whirled just in time to see Neptune storm up to her, grabbing his weapon, Milo still trapped in its mechanisms, out of her hands.  
"What did…How did…" he stammered, as he struggled to free Pyrrha's weapon from the gun's innards, "How did you time that?"  
"She hurt your baby, Nep?" Sun called from across the room as he helped Scarlet to his feet. Neptune was staring, incredulous, at the comingled weapons, before he turned his eyes to Pyrrha.  
"Were you waiting for this?" he gasped, as he finally managed to revert his weapon to Gun mode, allowing Milo to drop from the trigger guard. He clumsily caught the scythe, handing it back to Pyrrha, "And since when can it do THAT?"  
Pyrrha managed to smile as, with a flip of her wrist, the curved blade straightened back into its more familiar form.  
"I had a lot of down time while I was recovering." She said casually as she slid the sword into the special housing on Akouo and then slid both weapons across her back, "I didn't let it go to waste."  
"No indeed." Sage said as he stood, an arm across his middle. Pyrrha gave a look of concern to the dark-skinned giant, but he waved at her with a sheepish grin, "Your reputation serves you well, Pyrrha."  
"Especially since you don't need to be all secretive about your semblance anymore." Sun said, as he joined Neptune before the redhead. Pyrrha hunched herself slightly: that latter revelation in the wake of Beacon's fall was one of the few things she could think of that were GOOD about that night.  
She'd kept herself from revealing the full spectrum of her abilities for the longest time, out of a desire to not further ostracize herself from her peers: what point was there to fighting a girl who literally could deflect any metal weapon? Not to mention it had helped her hone it, learn to control it…

 _except for Jaune…or for Penny…oh yes, Penny learned the hard way…and what if she'd not been a robot, what if-_

"Pyrrha?"  
"Huh?" the redhead said, shaken out of the suddenly unwelcome thought by Sun's hand on her shoulder. The Faunus was looking at her with a concerned expression.  
"you…kinda zoned out for a second." The Monkey Faunus said, his concern mimicked by his teammates. Pyrrha looked between each of them quickly.  
"I'm sorry" she said hastily, putting a sheepish smile on her face "I guess I'm just-"  
She broke off, as an audible burbling sound came from her stomach, drawing the eyes of all four boys to her midsection.  
"-Hungry!" she said abruptly, "yes, Hungry…ah, didn't get much breakfast this morning, all this fighting has kinda burned up my reserves."  
"Well." Stonewall said as he came up to the five teens "I think you've earned yourself an early lunch then, Miss Nikos."  
Pyrrha looked up at the professor with a slight worry to her gaze: the last thing she wanted was for people to think she was getting special privileges…  
"Professor, I really don't think I should-"  
"Ah, go on, P!" Sun said, clapping the redhead on the back "you work hard enough for three as it is!"  
"Not to mention the extra work Whipmaster Winchester dumps on you…" Scarlet muttered. Professor Stonwall raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, yes, speaking of extra work…" he began, causing all four boys to stiffen "…I want you four, in the level five training rooms, NOW! Your goal in a dueling class is to train yourselves, not let your sorry butts be used for training dummies!"  
With a collective groan from the four, team SSSN collected their weapons and jogged out of the arena towards the doors at the far end of the chamber. Pyrrha watched them go, her slight guilt still there. She'd hope she wouldn't be seen as-

She jumped as Stonewall's hand came down on her shoulder, and she looked up at him.  
"Don't you worry about it, Pyrrha." He said, his mustache curling up in a smile as though he were reading her thoughts, "You performed excellently today. Now go on, dismissed. Get yourself some vittles."  
Pyrrha couldn't help but smile at the older man: Stonewall had been one of her trainers at Sanctum, and had watched her grow from novice to contest champion with the affectionate air of a close friend.  
"Thanks, Stonewall." She said, as he released her shoulder.

As she turned to leave the arena, she didn't notice the multiple sets of eyes glaring at her retreating back from the bleachers…

[=]

After a quick shower in the locker room and changing back into her uniform (dress codes were dress codes) Pyrrha made her way to the Haven dining hall where she'd wolfed down a quick plate of eggs that morning. She pondered at her isolation: Jaune and the other members of her team would be in their various classes for at least another hour.  
She looked up, bemused, at the clock on the far wall: After Battle Theory (and a doling out of extra homework from Professor Winchester, as expected) had she really been dueling for four hours? The time seemed to go by so quickly…

"hey, P-Money!"  
Pyrrha turned in surprise at the call of a familiar nickname (not her favorite one, by any means, but easy enough to identify) and a smile came to her face as she recognized the sunglasses-wearing figure of Coco Adel, leader of team CFVY, waving at her from one of the tables. Around her, the forms of her teammates, from the hulking Yatsuhashi to the dark and mysterious Fox to the rabbit-eared form of Velvet Scarlatina, smiled at her as she approached. Seemed like she won't be eating alone after all.

"Hey guys." Pyrrha said as she sat down with the team: CFVY had been lucky enough to have all four of its members in fit and fighting condition and present at Haven: after a brief hospital stay for Velvet to recover from the beating she'd received at the hands of Atlesian paladins, the four had journeyed to Haven with their fellows, where they'd retained their reputation as fierce fighters despite setbacks the year prior.

"So I heard you gave Sun's team a good walloping?" Coco said with a smirk. Pyrrha blushed slightly: CFVY's leader had not lost an ounce of her spunk after the fall of Beacon. Despite the humiliating loss in the Vytal festival and the mysterious circumstances behind it (though Coco was ready to hunt Mercury and Emerald down and tear their spines out, especially after Ruby's revelation of their involvement in Cinder fall's plot) the fashionista still kept up her domineering persona, though she looked distinctly put out in the Beacon Uniform the codes demanded she wear. Pyrrha could see her fidgeting at the hem of her plaid skirt even as she smirked at the redhead. Yatsu himself looked uncomfortable in the tight shirt collar and tie he was forced to wear.  
Pyrrha couldn't help but smile: to know such little things hadn't dampened team CFVY's spirit boosted her own up in a small fashion. She was about to reply…

"That's Pyrrha Nikos!"

Pyrrha stiffened at the hissed sound that came to her trained ears. It took every ounce of willpower she had not to look towards the source of her name, as she couldn't help but continue listening. Here it came again… she could almost recite the words from memory, they all followed the same general theme.

"What's SHE still doing here? All those Beacon Bloodletters are bad enough, but her-?"  
"If she thinks a haircut is going to help her leave what she did behind, she's crazy."  
"And didn't she murder that poor Atlas girl?"  
"You mean set Vale up for the biggest Grimm assault in years? Yeah, yeah she did."  
"I thought that was a robot, though."  
"pssh, please, Robots don't have aura!"  
"There was no blood, though."  
"So? She had those weird laser swords, they probably cauterized the wounds!"  
"Didn't Nikos almost die in the Grimm attack?"  
"You mean going off all hero-crazy to try and stop that dragon thing? Yeah, she fucked that up too, got the CCTS blown up for her troubles, I STILL can't call my cousin to make sure she's okay!"  
"I heard she had a nervous breakdown afterwards and was bedridden for weeks!"  
"And now she's got that dopey blonde guy following her around like a sick dog, did you SEE the poor guy, he looks like he's about to drop dead!"  
"Must be runnin' him ragged in the bedroom, if you know what I mean!"  
"Typical famous girl…arrogant bitch, just like at Sanctum. Thinks she's too good for us."

"Hey."  
Pyrrha started out of her thoughts as a hand fell on her shoulder, the cackling laughter of her accusers fading away from her perceptions. Turning her head, her emerald eyes met the determined gaze of Coco, who was peering over her sunglasses: the chocolate-haired girl looked…off, without her beret, but school dress codes would only stretch so far. It was clear Pyrrha hadn't been alone in overhearing the hissed scorn.  
"IGNORE them." The CFVY leader went on, her gaze boring into Pyrrha's eyes "They don't know what happened. We do: goodness knows you've made it all too clear."  
Pyrrha kept her gaze focused on the fashionista (she recalled that, before coming to Haven she'd never actually seen Coco wear the Beacon uniform before) for a moment, before looking to the comforting expressions of the others: Yatsu's strangely soothing impassiveness and Fox's bright gaze, and of course Velvet's almost maternally comforting smile.  
"I know…" Pyrrha said quietly, looking down and leaning forward to rest her elbows on the table.  
"Pyrrha…" Velvet's gentle voice spoke up, "we know you're going through a lot…we're here for you if you need us."

The Faunus' words, accompanied by reassuring nods from Yatsuhashi and Fox, drew a small smile to Pyrrha's face, though it faded quickly: how lucky she was, that friends besides her immediate team had been able to come to Haven…it was a godsend in more ways than one. She wasn't sure how she would cope if she had to face all this alone.  
Considering that even most of the BEACON students at Haven tended to avoid her…

 _-of course, considering how STUPID you were, maybe you deserve all of what you're getting-_

"I'm more afraid of you guys being ostracized because you stick so close to me…" Pyrrha replied sadly as she shook her head to banish the unwelcome mental jibe. Coco clucked in disapproval, as Velvet took one of Pyrrha's hands and began to stroke it consolingly.  
"hah! Like we aren't already?" Coco replied with a sarcastic chuckle, gesturing towards the tables nearby where some of the Haven students were trying to hide dirty looks shot towards the Beaconites "only SSSN and ABRN even talk to us, and except for Sun and Neptune tend to keep their distance more often than not."

Pyrrha nodded half-heartedly: deep down, she knew the fashionista was right.

Sun and Neptune had become unofficial ambassadors between the Beacon students and the rest of Haven: aside from being close friends of Ruby and forging a bond with the likes if JNPR and CFVY in the Battle for Beacon, they were among the few the Valian-school refugees didn't regard with a touch of hostility: Cinder Fall's proclamation that she herself came from Haven had engendered a sense of suspicion for the black-and-silver Uniformed students in the eyes of their Beacon counterparts (that Shade and Atlas felt the same way about them was neither here nor there,) which they resented and turned around on the Beacon students for not noticing such a dangerous figure in their midst: THEY were the ones hosting the games, after all.

Though just WHICH dangerous figure they spoke of when they said that wasn't always clear.

Pyrrha sighed: it was just as well Yang had elected to remain behind in Vale: she'd have been tormented constantly had she come to Haven, where feelings about her apparently unprovoked attack on "one of ours" ran strong among the students. Ruby was thankfully shielded from such things by her lack of any resemblance to her sister, but she had overheard their remarks. Pyrrha had gone through a lifetime supply of tissues consoling her dear friend afterwards.

As for Pyrrha, the hissed whispers she'd just overheard were the least of her concerns: she'd received so much hate mail that she'd stopped even opening anything that didn't come from her home or the school offices, and she'd found dolls laid outside her dorm or stuffed into her locker that had been torn apart in the same manner as Penny had been.  
That Penny was herself a robot made those effigies hurt worse, somehow, even though she knew Penny was alive and well. She wasn't sure she'd ever truly get over the shock of that night-

 _\- of losing control, of lashing out, what if Penny hadn't been a robot, she'd be DEAD-_

She shook her head: Penny was ALIVE, darn it, what point was there to being upset about it?

The discovery of blood-actual, _human_ blood-splashed liberally on her locker had finally prompted her to lodge a formal complaint with student authorities, and while no punishments had been made, the attacks hadn't escalated to such a level since. But they continued…as did her pariah status among the student body: many of them were her former classmates from Sanctum, who had had long memories of her from their younger years. If they hadn't wanted to know her then, they wanted her on another planet now. As for the Beacon crowd, while she had her team and her immediate friends, to many of the other transfers she was as much a danger as Cinder had been.

The Blame that had come down upon her for the Grimm attack, her "murder" of Penny causing the surge of horror that had drawn the Grimm and the spread of word that she'd in turn FAILED to stop the Grimm dragon from destroying the CCTS tower in Vale had only made her more of an outcast: she'd been promptly fired by her marketing consultants, and Pumpkin Pete's had dropped her smiling visage from their boxes. Her face had disappeared from dust shops and sporting goods stores faster than the tower's remains had plummeted to the ground after Cinder released her massive energy burst.

In a way, she supposed she should be relieved: she wasn't the strutting icon she hated being anymore. No one was treating her like an action figure, perfect in every way, untouchable and unattainable.

But considering the alternative she'd had forced upon her…

With a gasp from Team CFVY, Pyrrha clenched a fist closed-thankfully, not the one Velvet was stroking- and squeezed her eyes shut as she suddenly began to cry.

She was frustrated, no, she was _ANGRY_ : the tears tended to ambush her when she least expected or wanted them to. And they came so heavily when they did…  
"Oh, Pyrrha…" Velvet said sorrowfully as Pyrrha reclaimed her hand, doing her best to cover her eyes as she leaned forwards, her face pinching and shoulders shuddering.  
Coco patted the redhead on the back consolingly as Velvet leaned over and hugged the trembling girl, who did her level best not to sob aloud lest she draw MORE unwanted attention to herself.

"Thank you…" Pyrrha choked. Drawing in a deep breath through her nose, she managed-once again-to clamp down on her raging emotions, taking her hand from her face and forcing her eyes open. The damage was done: they were red and puffy and her cheeks were wet.

But she'd at least managed to keep from having a breakdown in the middle of the campus…again.

It happened a lot after Ruby Silvershine'd her: something about the therapeutic action unlimbered her usual emotional safeguards, and left her far more vulnerable to outbursts, usually of the despairing kind.  
Pyrrha had known for a long time how fragile her heart was, and the events of the past year had not helped her moods at all.

"Come on" Coco said as she stood, shooting a scathing glare in the direction the remarks towards Pyrrha had come from (and having the satisfaction of seeing two girls in Haven Uniforms flinch and look away) and gently helped Pyrrha to her feet.  
"Let's get you back to your room…among more pleasant company. We'll call Jaune, I'm sure-"

"No."

Coco looked in surprise at her friend as Pyrrha's face suddenly took on a look of determination, only slightly offset by her puffy eyes.  
"I'm going to the training center…best make some use of all this pent-up frustration."  
"You sure?" Coco asked, as she drew out her scroll "I can call Jaune, I'm sure he-"  
"No, thank you, no." Pyrrha shook her head as she let CFVY lead her towards the exit of the eating hall, "I'm not just going to sit in the dark and cry: that doesn't accomplish anything."  
"Pyrrha…" Velvet said slowly "you know, none of us would think any different of you if-"

"Please." Pyrrha said "I know what you're going to say, and I appreciate it, but I stand by what I just said: Crying isn't going to make my problems go away. The best thing I can do, right now, is put all that pent-up emotion to work. I'm still feeling off my game."  
The looks she was receiving from CFVY clearly stated they didn't believe a word of it. A touch of frustration flowed over Pyrrha: why did everyone seem to think she was about to shatter like a glass vase?  
"Guys, PLEASE" she said as the five stepped out into the autumn sunlight, "I don't want to pull Jaune out of class over a little sniffle: he's working hard as it is."  
She noticed Yatsu and Fox glance at one another, even as Velvet and Coco kept their eyes on her.  
"I'm FINE." She insisted.

Her determination had the effect of making Coco glance to her Faunus companion for a moment.  
"If you're sure…" Coco said, which gave Pyrrha all the opening she needed.  
"I'm sure" she replied with a smile, stepping away from the four, already taking off her uniform coat as she started to trot towards the massive building nearby "Just let Jaune and the others know I'm okay, please? They worry about me too much as it is!"

Coco nodded agreeably as Pyrrha departed, opening her scroll and making like she was texting. But all four retained their concerned expressions as Pyrrha turned away with a wave, rapidly disappearing into the distance.  
"Maybe because there's a lot more to worry about than you're letting on…." Fox whispered under his breath.

None of his teammates contradicted him as they watched the redhead go.

[=]

(AN: Aaaand we're back! Wow, this has taken a while.  
We're gonna have a few more chapters before we start getting to the real meat of the story, so stay tuned! Reviews are welcome.)


	6. Chapter 6: an Unpleasant Mood

_Haven Student training facility, Room 102_

The sun was beginning to drop towards the horizon, shining almost directly through the massive windows that dominated the walls of Haven's training gymnasium. The amber-colored light shining in large squares on the floor, for some reason, made Pyrrha feel all the more potent as she sucked in air, wiping sweat from her forehead. As she completed a penultimate flip and landed, legs spread, Milo held in a defensive position, her shoulders ever so slightly shaking and sheened with sweat as she sucked in a few breaths, she glared into the empty room, looking for the entire world like a caged tigress ready to strike.

Training dummies were scattered like bowling pins across the floor, all of them in pieces. Several reactive training robots were lying beside them or outright embedded in the walls, sparks shooting from them as they jittered and shook, trying to reboot. The floor and walls had several large gouges and craters impacted into them, and one of the overhead spotlights lay on the floor, shattered glass scattered about.

"Again." She ordered breathlessly. She usually wasn't this worn out: her deep breaths and the sweat trickling into her eyes caught her by surprise.  
"Apologies" a monotonous voice spoke from overhead loudspeakers in response to Pyrrha's demand "stores of training targets exhausted. Please seek alternative targets or exit the area."

Pyrrha stared, incredulous, up at the speakers, her arms dropping to her sides.  
"What?!" she cried "what do you mean exhausted, this-"

"You have been actively practicing for five hours, thirty-six minutes and forty-eight seconds, Pyrrha Nikos." The voice replied "in that time you have managed to destroy five-hundred-twenty-six inactive training dummies, forty-seven reactive training robots, nineteen auto-targeting turret sensors, and "kill" one-hundred-seventy-eight holographic Grimm simulations. Between your time and that of other students, the training center's stores of practice materials have been exhausted. Please exit the training area at this time: overnight repairs and replacements will ensure that there will be sufficient materials for practice duties tomorrow."

Pyrrha stared dumbly at the overhead speakers, unsure if she'd heard correctly.  
"Five…hours?" she repeated, before looking around at the piles of ruined dummies she'd left scattered about the room. They lay, scattered like discarded puppets whose strings had been cut….

Scattered like….like…

 _Like Penny's torn body on the floor of Amity Coliseum, as the lights went out of her eyes-_

"Quite a performance."  
Pyrrha gasped in surprise, and whirled, raising Milo as she forced the horrifying memory from her mind.  
As soon as she saw who had spoken, however, she immediately relaxed.  
"Oh, Jaune." She exhaled, lowering her weapons, "You startled me."

"Sorry." Her partner smiled as he exited the observation area-safely behind bulletproof glass-and walked across the floor towards her, stepping over the ruined dummies and crumpled robots.  
"How…long have you been here?" Pyrrha asked, suddenly self-conscious about the destruction she'd wrought. Her "fighting mode" slipped away from her…and her confident state with it. Early in her friendship with Jaune, when she'd been trying to enlighten him to her feelings, she'd been afraid her martial abilities made her…imposing, to the blonde. Even now she worried about it.

"A few hours. Coco called me and told me you were blowin' off some steam." Jaune replied as he skirted a training robot that, unlike the others, appeared to have been deliberately crushed as though a vise had closed around it. The bow and arrows it had been armed with lay like pick-up sticks, snapped and twisted. It almost looked like Pyrrha had gone out of her way to wreck it…  
"You were in a "zone" so I didn't want to intrude-" he continued, before he tripped over a training dummy's outstretched arm and fell to the ground with a yelp.  
Pyrrha couldn't help but smile as she trotted over to her partner and helped him to his feet. He looked up at her with a sheepish expression.

"Besides." He concluded, "You're kinda cute when you're at full "battle goddess" mode."  
Pyrrha cocked an eyebrow at her partner, lightly punching him in the shoulder with a laugh.  
"Oh, stop it" she giggled "I'm all sweaty and covered in grit."  
"mmm-hmm." Jaune said, before he suddenly leaned in close, cupping her chin and planting a kiss on her lips.

Pyrrha's lips curled into smile where they were pressed against Jaune's, and she let Milo fall from her hands and slid Akouo off her gauntlet as Jaune pulled her into an embrace, wrapping her arms around his torso and closing her eyes. Jaune let his fingers slowly slide from her chin, up her cheek to mesh into her hair as he held her close.  
Ever so slightly, one of Pyrrha's legs lifted off the floor.

Ever since that first night over a year ago, few things seemed to send fireworks off in Pyrrha's mind more than simply kissing the blonde she'd been pursuing for so long. All their passionate embraces since then, growing more and more daring, more…enticing, her developing relationship with Ruby, those rare but welcome three-way moments between them…  
Somehow, a simple kiss still made her knees weaken and filled her stomach with schoolgirl butterflies.

They broke it off only when their bodies demanded air, and stood there for a few moments, Pyrrha's head leaning on Jaune's shoulder as she smiled dreamily, her eyes still closed.  
"I love you." She said quietly.  
"Ditto." Jaune replied, which caused her to laugh once more: for all his charm and cuteness, Jaune would never be a romantic.  
For some reason, that genuineness made her love him all the more.

"We'd better clear out so they can start cleaning up." Jaune said as he released her and she stood up straight. Taking her hand, Pyrrha allowed him to pull her towards the changing rooms at the far end of the arena. The shattered robots and dummies remained where they lay.

[=]

"Your parents called." Jaune said as he held up Pyrrha's scroll: she'd left it off to the side while she was training, and he'd kept an eye on it while watching her work.  
"They wanted to know if you would to come to dinner tomorrow night."

Pyrrha paused for a moment as she began to change out of her armor, Milo and Akouo sitting on mounts in her locker. The two of them were alone in the large chamber, which was much more elaborate than the similar facilities at Beacon: with the dress-code requirements that the campus demanded, the lockers served as more than simply weapons storage. Dressing shrouds and the like were provided, and the benches were wider and more cushioned.  
"I was wondering if they would" she replied at last as she slipped her gauntlets off, "It's…been a while since I spoke to them."  
Not caring that Jaune could easily sneak a peek as she undressed (and perhaps hoping he would) she slipped her boots off and, bending over, placed them back in her locker.

Jaune tut-tutted slightly, as she straightened up and started to remove her gloves.  
"You know they were bouncing off the walls with worry when they heard about what happened, Pyrrha." He said as he leaned against the lockers, keeping the corner of his eye on his girlfriend as she finished pulling her gloves off and, after carefully folding them laid them on a shelf.  
Pyrrha sighed as she sat down on the bench and began removing the greaves and plates from her legs.  
"I know, I know: We all spent almost a week with them while the new exchange housing arrangement was being sorted out." She said, remembering JNPR's stay at her expansive house for a short, hectic week before Haven had managed to find room for the Beacon students transferred there, a few months after Beacon's fall. Ruby still had other issues to attend to before she'd been assigned to their team, and so hadn't been able to join them.  
A smile crossed Pyrrha's lips as she recalled the wide-eyed awe with which her teammates had gazed upon her palatial home. Nora had gleefully skipped along the corridors and into the massive ballroom, giggling like a little girl at the chandeliers and finery. Even Ren had seemed impressed. Jaune had, of course, been floored, but he'd seemed…strangely subdued about the whole thing, focusing more on Pyrrha herself. Due to the CCTS still being down, Ruby had been out of contact for that week.

Pyrrha paused at the memory of the strange…loneliness that she had felt at the Ruby's absence.  
Not that Jaune's presence had given her much time to ponder about it.

"So why haven't you gone back since?" Jaune asked as she slid the bronze plates off her athletic legs, flexing her feet to loosen up the now-freed leg muscles in her support tights. She cocked an eyebrow in his direction, where he leaned on the opposite row of lockers, his face turned away to preserve her modesty.  
"I have gone back, Jaune."  
"You know what I mean, Pyrrha…" Jaune replied, a slight hardness to his voice, "A few lunches and meeting your folks in town don't count as "going home."  
Pyrrha looked at the floor for a moment, a slight irritation niggling at her mind. They'd had this conversation before. It wasn't a subject Pyrrha enjoyed discussing.

"You know why: it's not-" she began.  
"-Not fair that you get to see your parents while mine and Ruby's are so far away, I know." Jaune interrupted, "Goodness knows I remember the hell-raising Ruby's dad made when she told him she was leaving with us."  
Pyrrha huffed as she placed her leg plates in her locker next to her boots, before standing and, removing the large pin embossed with her personal logo and setting it in the locker, starting to unwrap her sash from her waist. A slight scowl was on her lips as the red material whirled about her and she undid its careful folds and turns meant to keep such an unwrapping from happening in battle.  
"Well, it ISN'T fair: Ruby gets homesick enough as it is, Ren and Nora don't need me shoving my loving home in their faces, and you-"  
"You know it doesn't bother me."  
Pyrrha trailed off, shaking her head as she finished unwinding the scarlet fabric of her sash from her trim hips.

Maybe it was because Jaune placed a different importance on family than she did, with his large number of siblings. Maybe it was because of the way his parents had behaved around him: Pyrrha could still remember Jaune's words about how they'd not believed in him, even after he'd been accepted to Beacon. Perhaps he saw that as a form of love, his family accepting him no matter what.  
Or maybe it was because ever since what had happened at Beacon, her relationship with her parents had…changed.  
"I know…I just…" She paused for a moment, "You've all been so kind to me. I don't want to exploit a privilege like that."  
She heard Jaune snort.  
"How many times did Ruby and Yang go home on weekends? Heck, how many times did they bring Weiss and Blake with them, Hell, how many times did they invite US?" He replied as Pyrrha laid the sash atop her boots.

Pyrrha said nothing as, unzipping her miniskirt, she let the black garment slide down her long legs, she stepped out of it and set it on a hanger in her locker. Bending over and not caring that Jaune could get a perfect view of her firm buttocks in her black tights, she picked up a second hanger that had fallen to the floor of her locker.

Truth be told…Jaune was right. It had more been her own concerns about going home again and confronting her mother and father about what had happened than anything else that had kept her voluntarily isolated from her family. She'd come up with all sorts of excuses: Preparing herself for when she went on missions, "growing out" of the nest, not wanting to reveal how much comfort her home provided, a haven away from the expectations the world had foisted upon her…and now the scorn she had to put up with. And it wasn't like her Parents hadn't supported her choice to become a Huntress, her family had several members of that fraternity in their family tree.  
But after her razor-close call…her Parents' attitude had changed. She'd managed to keep her friends from finding out what she'd overheard during their week at her house…small wonder she'd wanted to get out as fast as she could.

Still…  
"I suppose…dinner and…maybe spending the night wouldn't hurt…" she said as, hanging up the skirt, she began to release the clasps holding her new corset in place.  
She jumped slightly as she felt a sudden pair of hands trail up her sides.

"They -did- say there was a surprise waiting for you, too." Jaune added as he playfully undid the clasps down her tight abdomen, letting his fingers dance over the material of her red turtleneck beneath. Pyrrha couldn't resist a slight giggle at his tickling touch.  
"Well" she replied, "Then I'll just have to go, won't I, lest the anticipation eat me alive?"  
Pyrrha leaned against him, not caring about her state of undress… only to pop forwards with a blush, twirling to face her boyfriend.

"And just what are YOU thinking about?" she asked playfully, a wide smile on her face. Jaune choked for a moment before he couldn't help but laugh.  
"You, of course" he replied at last. Pyrrha cooed affectionately as she leaned in close and kissed him on the cheek.  
"Aww, that's sweet-"  
"-and what you whispered in my ear this morning." Jaune suddenly added.  
Pyrrha abruptly snorted laughter, stepping away from Jaune and playfully smacking him on the chest.  
"-rude!" she chuckled, placing a hand to her mouth as she often did when she laughed, even as her face reddened. Their relationship had come far from the awkwardness of their "first time" a few months prior.

[=]

 _Not many couples could say "foreplay" was losing to Jaune in a swordfight: but something about how he'd stood before her, sword loosely aimed at the center of her chest, Milo embedded in the dirt a few feet away…  
Maybe it had been the heat, the sweat streaming down both their faces. Maybe it had been the hot excitement of the moment, Jaune finally, properly beating her.  
And maybe it had been the energy that hat filled Jaune's blue eyes at the success._

 _But, whatever it had been, Pyrrha had suddenly slapped the pointed blade aside and almost smashed her lips into Jaune's.  
He'd stiffened at first, a bit stunned, but had slowly folded into the kiss, taking them back to that first moment at the base of Beacon tower…  
When they finally broke off, huffing for breath, Pyrrha had, for some reason, thrown her usual inhibitions aside._

 _No nightmares plagued her that night._

[=] _  
_

She smiled through her blush at Jaune's red face, a slightly sheepish expression over his scarlet cheeks.  
"That was kinda weak, I know-" he began, but Pyrrha placed a finger to his lips, silencing him.  
Her smile never wavered.  
"That was adorable." She said, "Just like you."

The Blonde said nothing more for a moment, turning away as Pyrrha slid the turtleneck up and off her torso. Her black and gold sports bra clung to her chest with sweat, and Pyrrha didn't hesitate to slip the garment off, exchanging it for a more…frilly alternative that she'd worn with her uniform.  
Depositing the training gear in a laundry bag she kept in her locker (she reminded herself that the teams' weekly Laundry trip was meant to be undertaken tomorrow) she reached for her uniform blouse where it hung in the locker and started to dress.

Focused as she was on her attire, she didn't register the growing noise outside the building. Jaune, ever the one with situational awareness even in his sleep deprived state, perked up immediately.  
"Dress quickly." He ordered, his voice suddenly deep with authority "I think we need to move."

[=]

Pyrrha hastily finished tucking her blouse into her skirt, Jaune carrying her uniform blazer as he pulled her towards the side door. He'd suddenly become serious as she'd begun dressing, and had hurried her along.

"Jaune, what is it?" Pyrrha demanded, her annoyance returning as she was all but dragged towards the exit, almost tripping out of her shoes, "I need to make sure my locker is sealed tight, and the last thing I need is to get stopped by a uniform inspector-"  
"Listen." Jaune cut her off, his voice carrying the commanding tone he used on missions…one Pyrrha found slightly enticing. Stopping just before the door, he handed Pyrrha her blazer and put his ear to the wooden panel, his eyes focused on nothing as he listened.  
Pyrrha's annoyance faded as she realized Jaune was being perfectly serious. She did as instructed, cupping an ear as she detected the growing noise. Her brow furrowed, and she blinked in confusion.  
"What's that?"

She could hear aggravated shouting and the dull rumble of a mass of voices. Running feet could be heard here and there among the noise. She and Jaune both flinched as they heard something made of glass crash against the side of the building, before looking at each other in worry.

Those were the sounds of a mob.

Slowly, hesitantly, Jaune nudged the door open, peering around the edge at the source of the dull roar. It was now much clearer in Pyrrha's ears without the door blocking the way: something clearly had a mass of students very upset. She turned and gazed back towards her locker as she listened, pondering if she should go grab her weapons….

 _A mass of students…outside the training center…_

Her eyes snapped open wide as she suddenly recalled the events of the past few hours.

"oh no…" Pyrrha murmured, her face falling as realization struck.

Leaning over Jaune's shoulder and pushing the door open further, her eyes widened as she saw the large mob of students standing outside the main doorway of the training hall. They were all dressed in their combat gear, some of them carrying weapons.  
The dull, angry roar that echoed in her ears rose and fell came from the group, which was growing larger every minute as more students came rushing to the source of the noise. At the doors themselves, several members of the school staff were barring entrance to the building.

"What do you mean the training center is closed?!" One angry shout carried to the two Beaconites' ears.

To Pyrrha's dismay, she could see several students she recognized from Beacon among the mob of Havenites, more than one of them receiving dirty looks from their Mistral counterparts.

Tensions had been high in the past few months: one could feel it in the air itself. Between the fall of Beacon, the attack on Vale at the height of the Vytal Festival, Atlas' fall from grace in the eyes of the world, the loss of the CCTS-  
- _YOUR loss of the CCTS-_ her mental voice tried to scream at her-  
-and the suspicion of Haven due to Cinder's proclamation of her native kingdom, the students at the huntsman Academies had all come under increased pressure. For Haven, the suspicion of their school, the presence of the Beacon students, especially the now-infamous Pyrrha Nikos, and the lack of contact with the outside world due to the loss of the CCTS had been building friction to a boiling point. Students had frequently taken out their frustrations on the training center dummies…no wonder the levels of reserves had been so low that Pyrrha alone could deplete them all by herself. And now…

"We'd…better go." Jaune said, as he took Pyrrha's hand and, trying not to open the door all the way, led her out, hugging the side of the building, away from the angry group of students. The attendants and staff were trying to ease the ire of the group, which only seemed to make them angrier.

"It's Friday night…." Pyrrha murmured as she let Jaune pull her along, her blazer draped over her free hand as she squeezed Jaune's hand with her other, "…Of course everyone's going to want to be training…"  
Jaune grimaced, looking over his shoulder at her crestfallen face as she stopped, staring at the ground, shaking her head. He could almost see her old self-recrimination surging up in her soul…

What kind of mindset must a person have for "I'm Sorry!" to be almost every other word out of their mouth?  
What kind of life must a person have for them to think every action is an inconvenience to someone?

To make them think they themselves are an inconvenience?

Even after a year of dating, Jaune knew he still had a lot to learn about Pyrrha.

Well, now wasn't the time or place for it.

"Look, just don't draw any attention to us." Jaune said, coming around behind her and placing a gentle hand on her back to usher her along. His voice, ever supportive, seemed to echo in her ears as she half-listened.

As the crowd of angered teens continued filling the space in front of the training hall, Pyrrha allowed Jaune to guide her away into the shadows.

[=]

"I'm sorry…I don't mean to be so negative…"

Having successfully escaped from the riotous training hall, the roar of the crowd still echoing on the distance, Pyrrha and Jaune walked slowly back towards their dorm. The wind swirled autumn leaves through their legs, Pyrrha's skirt flapping against her thighs as she occasionally kicked a piece of errant debris on the pathway.  
Jaune scoffed as he led Pyrrha along towards the Beacon dormitories, the pools of lamp light on the walkway marking their route. They were alone: everyone else was either back in their dorms, out on the town…or part of the crowd outside the training hall.  
He patted her gently on the back with a sigh, a supportive smile on his face.  
"Pyrrha, you've got every right to be upset about the way they're treating you…you don't deserve it, not by a long shot."

"It's not that…."

Jaune turned his gaze to his partner, who still kept her eyes to the ground. She was loosely hugging herself, drawn in and closed off. The lamplight shone off her shortened scarlet hair, and their footsteps echoed on the empty pathway.

Jaune had seen this before, every time something slapped her in the face with what had happened. He let his smile drop away as Pyrrha sniffled: her control over her emotions, the mask she put on…sometimes it slipped.

He was still waiting for the day that it might fall off completely…

"It's just…do they think I don't regret it?" Pyrrha said at last, closing her eyes as she stopped.

Jaune paused beside her, looking at her in concern as she kept her head towards the ground, as though ashamed. For a moment, the only sound was the breeze in the trees and the occasional chirp of a late season bug.  
"Regret?" Jaune ventured at last.  
Pyrrha turned away, shaking her head as she hugged herself tighter. Her voice had the slightest twinge of emotion in it as she continued.

"Everything I did! Losing the CCTS, killing Penny, causing the attack, losing the…the…" she hesitated for a moment, before she placed a hand to her eyes"…Running off and abandoning all of you, I don't-"

"Hey, hey!" Jaune said as he stepped forwards and wrapped the trembling girl in a hug. She stiffened, as though surprised, despite the fact that they'd been "together" for more than a year now, and far more intimate. Jaune's embrace was tight and heartfelt, lifting her onto her toes slightly as he stood straight and determined. Her hair tickled his cheeks and his voice was right in her ear as he spoke.  
"We went over this!" he said, his voice soft and consoling, "you didn't "lose" anything, Pyrrha, you just…"  
He broke off, sighing for a moment as he squeezed her close.  
"Well…got in a little over your head. And I know that's a big deal for you, but…"  
He stepped back, hands still on her shoulders, as his blue eyes looked deep into her tear-filled emerald gaze. He'd had some words mentally prepared for these times.  
"Well…you're still here! And I'm still here!"  
He squeezed her shoulders through her blouse, smiling a determined grin at her astonished face, full of his old friendly vitality…somewhat offset by the bags under his eyes. Pyrrha's mouth was open in an "o" of surprise, her eyes wide and glistening as she took in his words.

"We're all still here, Pyrrha" Jaune said, confidently, "Even Penny. And none of the people whose opinions should matter blame you for what happened. I mean, Sheesh, even Penny doesn't blame you, based on what you told me!"  
He leaned in and hugged Pyrrha once more, this time having the satisfaction of feeling her arms come around and return it. For several long moments the two stood there, letting the autumn winds blow around them, leaves swirling around in miniature tornadoes.  
Jaune felt Pyrrha clutch him close for a moment as the leaves danced about them. He'd noticed that anything to do with the season, be it the name or something that made one think of fall, had begun to make Pyrrha strangely…nervous.  
 _Another day…another time…._

"Take care of the people who love you, Pyrrha." He said as he returned her squeeze, "They're the only ones who should matter to you at the end of the day. Forget what all those jerks are saying about you: they've got no idea what happened."  
He pulled away from her, feeling her hands reluctantly trail from his back, as he smiled lovingly at her. Her eyes were still wet, and she was looking at him like she'd never seen him before.  
Well, it wasn't every day he talked like this either…  
"And no matter what…" Jaune said as he reached down and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, offering it to her, "I'll always be here to listen, just like you were always there for me. Because I love you."  
Pyrrha's eyes widened slightly at those last words. Finally, she smiled, as she gratefully took the hankie from his hands.  
"I…I think I'll call my parents back in the morning…" She spoke at last, wiping at her cheeks, "Some of mama's cooking sounds really good right now."

"That sounds like a great idea." Jaune said, with his usual doofus smile that she found so cute on his face. She smiled brightly at him, the expression easing his concerns: he'd managed to hold off that collapsing mask for another day.  
Carefully, he began to usher her along the path.  
"Now come on." He said, "Nora's got a surprise waiting for you."

[=]

Jaune leading the way, Pyrrha followed him through the door to team JNPRR's dorm room. She'd remained silent after Jaune's statement: truth be told, she was kind of blown away by how heartfelt his words had been.

Stepping past her partner and allowing him to close the door, she stopped as she felt Nora, Ren and Ruby's eyes immediately fall upon her: all three were sitting or standing around the teams' beds, still in their uniforms. The youngest redhead sprang to her feet, her face a picture of worry.  
"You alright?" Ruby asked as she came up and hugged Pyrrha about the waist: she barely came up to Pyrrha's shoulders, and so was perfectly positioned to press her head right against Pyrrha's heart.

The taller redhead smiled as, letting Jaune take her blazer from her arms, she returned the hug as Ren and Nora came up to her.  
"Coco texted us" the dark-haired ninja said as he laid a hand on her shoulder, "She mentioned some of the other students were tormenting you again."  
"Erm, Yes…" Pyrrha said, a downcast look coming to her face. But she shook her head for a moment as she recalled Jaune's words and put on a smile for her friends.  
"But I'm feeling much better now."  
Ruby smiled up at her as she released Pyrrha's waist.  
"We hope so!" she said "Jaune said you were almost tearing the training center apaaa…-"  
She broke off as she noticed Jaune making a slashing motion across his throat and shaking his head. Looking back at Pyrrha, she was greeted with the rare sight of an embarrassed blush on the redhead's cheeks as she looked away for a moment, biting her lower lip.  
"A bit TOO much tearing…" she murmured, before turning back to her teammates, whose faces were once more pictures of worry.  
"But it's fine, fine!" she said, waving her hands to attempt to allay their concerns "You'll probably hear all about it tomorrow, in any case."  
Satisfied that the confused looks on her teammates faces would prevent further discussion of the training center, she turned to Jaune and held out a hand.  
"Oh, Jaune, could you pass me my scroll, please? I left it in the inside pocket."  
"Sure thing" Jaune nodded as he started fiddling with Pyrrha's blazer, managing to locate the communication device and passing it to its owner.

"Any…interesting calls?" Ruby asked, trying to get back on track after her previous train of thought had been derailed.  
Pyrrha smiled at the younger redhead as she fingered her scroll thoughtfully. She hesitated for a moment before replying.  
"Well, as it happens, Jaune has informed me that my Parents have invited me to dinner tomorrow." She said congenially, "I was wondering if you'd all like to come with me?"  
Her three teammates perked up in surprise, and smiles came to their lips.  
"I've always wondered what your house looks like." Ruby replied, "So count me in!"  
"Is your mom going to make those little meat pies again, those were SO GOOD-!" Nora squealed, affirming her position as she raised her arms up to her face, fists shaking in excitement.  
"I suppose someone's going to need to keep Nora from eating your parents out of house and home…" Ren added as he cocked an eyebrow at his partner.

Pyrrha smiled broadly at the response of her friends: having them there might persuade her parents to hold off on any discussions of the nature of the one they'd had last time she'd stayed home…at least, she hoped so.  
"And you, Jaune?" she asked, turning to her partner who had remained standing behind her.  
"Huh? Oh, of course!" he said, shaking his head as though he'd been in deep thought…or spacing out.  
Pyrrha smiled at him, hiding a moment of concern as Jaune yawned… how much had his little speech tired him out?

"As for tonight, though…" Nora said, drawing Pyrrha back into the moment as the hammer-wielding huntress turned away from the taller redhead "We think you might need some…de-stressing."  
Pyrrha's brow furrowed in confusion as she regarded her teammate: this must have been the "surprise" Jaune had mentioned.  
She managed to hide a sudden nervousness: Nora's "surprises" didn't always end up going well…  
"De…stressing?" she said carefully.

Nora and Ruby winked at each other.  
"We talked to Jaune while he was watching you train…when your parents called…." Nora continued, turning towards a Scroll projector, which would blow up the small device's display to a larger scale,  
"We asked them what your favorite movies were…needless to say, we were pleasantly surprised!"  
Plugging her scroll into the device, a bright blue screen popped to life, with a simple logo of a Black Circle with two triangle Cat ears protruding from the top appearing. Underneath, in swirly white letters, was a signature all too familiar to Pyrrha's heart, and she couldn't stop a delighted laugh.

"Oh you guys…!" she giggled "Bisney Movies?"

"Is that alright?" Ruby asked, her voice suddenly uncertain, "Y-Your mom told us you used to love them, we thought you'd like to-"  
Fear surged through Pyrrha for a moment.  
"oh, no, no!" she yelped apologetically, waving her hands "There's nothing wrong! It's just…" she paused, before letting out a wistful sigh as her hands dropped, "I haven't watched them in so long…!"

Nora smirked, using the screen's touch-acknowledgement function to key in a menu. A series of titles appeared, and she ran her finger up and down the screen, sliding it across to reveal more.  
"Why don't you key in some of your favorites while we get the rest of the treats ready?" she asked.  
Pyrrha smiled as she stepped over to the screen, Nora sliding past her.  
"I hope we got enough popcorn!" the hyperactive girls' voice carried as she headed towards the dorm's eating area: unlike the Beacon dorms, with their full-fledged apartment-style layout, Haven dorms had only a small kitchenette off the "living room."  
Pyrrha smiled at the thought: a simple movie night with her best friends. Sounded absolutely delightful.

In short order, she stood, turning to meet Jaune's expectant gaze.  
"You all set?" he asked, a smile on his lips. Pyrrha nodded.  
"I'm surprised at the variety." She replied as she stepped away "I haven't seen some of these since I was really young."  
Jaune's smile grew wider as he looked down at the screen, before his brow furrowed in confused surprise.

"Vinnie the Boo Bear?" Jaune said, as he noticed the first film Pyrrha had selected "That's your favorite?"  
"Surprised?" Pyrrha replied with a smile as she patted him on the cheek. Jaune huffed in bemusement.  
"Guess I always pictured you as a "Pirates of the Mistral Sea" kind of girl." Her boyfriend replied.  
"It may come as a surprise" Pyrrha replied with a cocked eyebrow and a chuckle "But my idea of "relaxing" usually doesn't involve fighting. I get enough of that as it is."  
Jaune didn't reply as he perused her other selections.  
"Dreaming Beauty…Emperor of the Lions…The Great Railway Chase? Isn't that last one a war movie?"  
"Oh! That's one of my favorites." Pyrrha replied "It's set in the Mistral Civil war, when agents from the Eastern provinces steal a train in order to-"  
"No spoilers!" Ruby cut in suddenly as she squeezed between the two, gently urging Pyrrha away from the screen "We wanna SEE it, not hear about it!"  
"Okay, okay!" Pyrrha laughed jovially as she held up her hands in submission. Ruby pouted, waggling a finger in Pyrrha's face before she smiled herself. She giggled aloud as Jaune ruffled her hair, causing the two to dissolve into a slap fight.  
"Watch the hair!"  
"I thought that was Yang's thing?"  
"It's a FAMILY thing, Mr. Hayseed!"  
"that's CHIEF Hayseed to YOU, Sub-commander Rose!"  
"why aren't I High Commander!"  
"Because Pyrrha's High commander, that's why!"

Pyrrha couldn't help but let out a laugh as bright as the one she'd released at the dance at her two partner's antics. She was about to reach in and break them up…

"Alright!" Nora suddenly declared, appearing between the three "If we're going to do this…."  
She vanished into her closet for a moment, reemerging suddenly dressed in her pajamas, pink short shorts and her "boop" T-shirt, "Then we will do it the proper way! Commander Ruby!" she suddenly barked at Ruby, who jumped slightly where she was wrapped up in Jaune's arms, "You shall aid me in Pillow Fort Construction!"

In short order, the team's uniforms were shed, replaced with something more comfortable for the situation: Namely, pajamas.  
Pyrrha smiled as she carefully hung her uniform in her and Ruby's shared closet, taking a moment to straighten Ruby's blouse on its hanger. She wore a tank top the same color as her armor, black short-shorts and, as her ankle was aching ever so slightly, she kept her black support tights on. Aside from helping her ankle after her workout, the garments helped ward off a slight chill in the air.  
Besides, she thought with a mental wicked grin as she wiggled her toes in the nylon mesh, maybe Jaune would be up for a…foot massage later.

Nora and Ruby were hastily reducing the team's Mattresses, sheets, blankets and Pillows to an indiscriminate pile on the floor in front of the projector, vaguely resembling a fortress of some sort, as Jaune and Ren tended to the snacks. The smell of popcorn soon filled the dorm as Nora pronounced the dedication of Fort Juniperrrrr, somehow having acquired an over-adorned Military hat, and raised a flag with the five's personal logos on it from one of the bedposts used to hold up the 'walls" of the pillow fort.  
Pyrrha couldn't help but giggle as Ruby, dressed in her favored black tank top and white PJ pants adorned with rosebuds (and, perhaps in solidarity with Pyrrha, keeping her own tights on) pulled the tall redhead down to the floor amidst a cozy nest of pillows and blankets, more than she'd realized the team possessed. Jaune slipped in behind them, sliding a pillow between the back of Pyrrha's head and his chest as he positioned himself with the redhead between his legs.  
Pyrrha's eyebrows climbed in surprise as Ren and Nora promptly presented a six-pack of her favorite drink (Dr. Popper…she couldn't resist that spicy tang) and plopped the massive bowl of popcorn within easy reach as Jaune puffed up the pillow behind her head and Ruby slid another (where did all these pillows come from?) under her bad ankle.  
"Guys, all this pampering really isn't necess-" Pyrrha began, but Ruby cut her off by popping a popcorn kernel into the redhead's mouth. As Pyrrha couldn't help but indulge in the buttery saltiness, Ruby smiled brightly at her.  
"If you think this is "pampering" Pyrrha, you ain't seen nothin' yet." The tiny girl replied "This is called "unwinding after a long day." And you most certainly deserve it."  
At that, Pyrrha couldn't help but smile widely around the popcorn in her mouth.

As Ruby turned around and made a pillow out of her bosom, her cherry-chocolate hair ticking Pyrrha's breasts through the deep neck of her tank top, Pyrrha settled into the seat she had made out of Jaune as the first beats of the oh-so-familiar theme song began to play, and the little yellow-furred bear, so comforting in her childhood, appeared on the screen. Slightly, perhaps a simple gesture, or perhaps a reminder of a promise Pyrrha had made that morning, Ruby let one of her delicate fingers brush against Pyrrha's leg, trailing up over her knee towards her thigh.  
Pyrrha giggled, popping a quick kiss into Ruby's hair, before she herself leaned back onto Jaune's chest as the five turned their attention to the projected screen, as the titles began to scroll across. Ruby nuzzled deeper in between Pyrrha's legs as she pulled a blanket over them, snuggling deep into the voluminous folds. Jaune draped his arms over Pyrrha's shoulders to cover anything Ruby and the comforter didn't.

As she let nostalgia roll over her, Pyrrha indulged in the warmth her friends surrounded her with…the love of two in particular bringing a slight blush to her cheeks as she snuggled into Jaune and Ruby's embrace.  
"Take care of the people who love you…." She murmured to herself, as she dove head first into the warm embrace of friendship.

[=]  
(AN: okay, the next few scenes are going to be fluffy to the point of being mistaken for sheep. But things are also going to start picking up…very shortly.)


End file.
